Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics state the concept might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects including increasing food costs.
The research study has been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adjusted to harsh conditions including incredibly arid deserts.
It is already 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 scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record 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 great growth, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The scientists state that a crucial element of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.
They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, brief term solution to environment modification.
“I believe it is a good concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely various between extracting and preventing.”
According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A number of countries are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the scientists, offering a financial return.
“Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not persuaded. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in handling dry conditions.
is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the truth was very various.
“When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she stated.
“But there are frequently people who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”
She pointed out that jatropha is extremely hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the idea.
“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem 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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