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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

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Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the concept is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the concept might be have unforeseen, unfavorable impacts including increasing food prices.

The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adjusted to extreme conditions including extremely 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 research study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

"The outcomes are frustrating," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was excellent growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start," he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists say that a crucial element of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are wanting to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term option to climate modification.

"I think it is a good concept since we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is totally various in between extracting and avoiding."

According to the researcher's computations the expenses of suppressing co2 through the of trees would be 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 variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, offering an economic return.

"Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was very different.

"When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.

"But there are often people who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as marginal."

She pointed out that jatropha is highly toxic and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the concept.

"It is still somebody else's land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn't actually trigger?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.