Desert 'carbon farming' to curb 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 might be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics say the concept could be have unpredicted, negative effects consisting of driving up food prices.
The research has actually been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of incredibly dry deserts.
It is currently grown as a biofuel, in some parts of the world since its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The results are overwhelming," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was good development, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The scientists state that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.
They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, brief term solution to environment change.
"I think it is a great idea because we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is completely different in between drawing out and avoiding."
According to the researcher's calculations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide 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 currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, offering a financial return.
"Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They point to 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 very successful in coping with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the fantastic, green hope the truth was really different.
"When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she said.
"But there are often individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as marginal."
She pointed out that jatropha is highly hazardous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues 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 really trigger?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
dustyayala722 edited this page 2025-01-12 05:11:03 +08:00