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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb 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 locations could be a reliable way of of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the idea could be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food rates.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of extremely dry 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 a person hectare of jatropha might catch up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their estimates 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 good growth, a good action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The researchers state that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are wishing to develop 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 a great, short term solution to climate change.

“I believe it is a great concept due to the fact that we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s calculations the expenses 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 number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the researchers, providing an economic return.

“Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the terrific, green hope the reality was very various.

“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land,” she said.

“But there are typically individuals who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”

She mentioned that jatropha is highly toxic and can contaminate 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 go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with 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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