Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists state that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers say the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics say the idea might be have unanticipated, negative impacts consisting of increasing food rates.
The research study has actually been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions including exceptionally 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 scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The results are overwhelming," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was great development, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.
According to the scientists 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 researchers state that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.
They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, brief term option to climate modification.
"I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are actually drawing out co2 from the atmosphere - and it is totally different between extracting and avoiding."
According to the researcher's computations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide via 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 nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for say the scientists, supplying a financial return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in coping with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the great, green hope the truth was very various.
"When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she said.
"But there are frequently people who need limited 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 extremely poisonous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.
"It is still someone else's land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn't in fact cause?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
paulinahigdon7 edited this page 2025-01-17 12:20:34 +08:00