Desert 'carbon farming' to 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 areas might be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the concept is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics state the concept could be have unforeseen, unfavorable impacts consisting of increasing food costs.
The research study 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 very well adjusted to severe conditions including 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 research study, German scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees presently 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 excellent development, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting 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 cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.
The researchers state that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.
They are wanting to establish bigger 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 could be a good, short term service to climate change.
"I believe it is a good concept because we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is totally various in between drawing out and avoiding."
According to the researcher's computations the costs of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the scientists, supplying an economic return.
"Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the truth was really various.
"When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.
"But there are frequently people who need marginal 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 highly hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the concept.
"It is still someone else's land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn't in fact trigger?"
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 'unreasonable strategy'
Published
15 April 2013
Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
The BBC is not responsible for the material of external websites.
1
Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
tysondreyer245 edited this page 2025-01-11 08:24:52 -08:00