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 could be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers say the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the concept could be have unexpected, negative effects consisting of increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is very well adapted to harsh conditions consisting of incredibly arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha might catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

"There was good growth, a great response 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 soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers say that a vital aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are wanting to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term service to environment change.

"I think it is a great idea due to the fact that we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is completely different between drawing out and avoiding."

According to the researcher's computations the expenses of curbing co2 via the of trees would be 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 number of nations are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in dealing with dry conditions.

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

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

"But there are often people who require 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 highly poisonous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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