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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

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

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the concept might be have unforeseen, unfavorable impacts consisting of driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is effectively adjusted 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 scientists showed that one hectare of could record as much as 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 outcomes are frustrating,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was great growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

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

The researchers state that a critical aspect of the plan would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are wishing to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term service to climate modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea since we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is totally different in between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 via the planting of trees would be 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 presently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

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

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

But other experts in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the fantastic, green hope the reality was extremely different.

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

“But there are frequently people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as minimal.”

She mentioned 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 concept.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these people 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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