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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an effective way of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics say the idea could be have unexpected, negative impacts consisting of driving up food costs.
The research has been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adapted to severe conditions consisting of incredibly dry deserts.
It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha could catch approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The outcomes are overwhelming,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was good growth, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.
The researchers say that an important aspect of the plan would be the schedule of desalination centers. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.
They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short term option to environment modification.
“I think it is an excellent concept because we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various between extracting and preventing.”
According to the researcher’s calculations the costs of curbing co2 by means of the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in coping with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the terrific, green hope the truth was extremely various.
“When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land,” she said.
“But there are frequently people who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as marginal.”
She mentioned that jatropha is highly poisonous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the concept.
“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t actually cause?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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