Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics say the idea could be have unanticipated, negative effects consisting of increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe conditions including very arid deserts.

It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world since its seeds can produce oil.

In this study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might catch approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

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

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

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

They are to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, brief term solution to climate change.

"I believe it is an excellent idea since we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is entirely different in between extracting and avoiding."

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 methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A variety of countries are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the researchers, providing an economic return.

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

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was extremely different.

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

"But there are frequently people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we wouldn't class the land as limited."

She mentioned that jatropha is highly hazardous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.

"It is still someone else's land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with a problem these people didn't really trigger?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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