Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might 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 tasks.

But critics say the concept could be have unpredicted, negative impacts including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to harsh conditions including very arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha might catch approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists 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 great development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The researchers say that a crucial component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are wishing to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short term service to environment change.

"I think it is a great idea because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is completely various in between drawing out and preventing."

According to the researcher's computations the expenses of curbing co2 by means of the planting 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 currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

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

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the terrific, green hope the truth was really different.

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

"But there are typically people who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location - we wouldn't class the land as marginal."

She explained that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

"It is still someone else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn't really cause?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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