Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the idea might be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally 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 researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha could capture as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The scientists based their price 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 development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.

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

The researchers say that a crucial aspect of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wanting to trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short term option to environment modification.

"I think it is an excellent concept because we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is entirely different in between drawing out and preventing."

According to the researcher's estimations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide by means of the planting of trees would be in 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 variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

"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 minimal."

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful and can pollute 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 enter and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these people didn't actually cause?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

More on this story

'Carpets of seaweed' grown for fuel. Video, 00:03:05'Carpets of seaweed' grown for fuel

1 July 2013

Biofuels are 'illogical method'

Published

15 April 2013

Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not accountable for the material of external sites.