Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations 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 projects.
But critics state the concept could be have unanticipated, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up 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 extremely well adapted to severe conditions consisting of extremely dry 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 researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha might record up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The outcomes are frustrating," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was great development, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.
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 20 year duration.
The scientists state that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.
They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term solution to environment change.
"I believe it is an excellent concept due to the fact that we are truly drawing out co2 from the environment - and it is totally various between extracting and preventing."
According to the researcher's computations 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 strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just soaks up 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 say the researchers, supplying a .
"Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.
But other experts in this area are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once viewed as the excellent, green hope the truth was extremely various.
"When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she said.
"But there are typically people who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location - we would not class the land as marginal."
She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.
"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these people didn't really trigger?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
cerysspell5499 edited this page 2025-01-12 05:58:57 +08:00