Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2

1 August 2013

close panel

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the concept could be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food costs.

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 Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions including exceptionally arid 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 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 price quotes on trees presently 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 growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start," 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 cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The scientists state that a crucial component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are wanting to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short term solution to environment change.

"I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is completely different between drawing out and preventing."

According to the researcher's computations the expenses of suppressing 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 number of countries are presently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the researchers, providing a financial return.

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

But other specialists in this location are not persuaded. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was really different.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely 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 enter and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn't in fact cause?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.