Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the concept is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the idea might be have unforeseen, negative impacts consisting of increasing food costs.

The research study has 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 severe conditions consisting of extremely dry deserts.

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

In this study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently 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 response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start," he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The researchers say that a crucial element of the plan would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are intending to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short term solution to climate modification.

"I believe it is a great idea since we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is entirely different between drawing out and preventing."

According to the researcher's estimations the expenses of suppressing 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 variety of countries are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, offering an economic return.

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

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, . She says that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the excellent, green hope the truth was very various.

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

"But there are typically individuals who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we wouldn't class the land as limited."

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful 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 somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these people didn't actually cause?"

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 'irrational technique'

Published

15 April 2013

Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not responsible for the material of external websites.