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Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

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

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

But critics say the idea might be have unpredicted, negative effects including driving up food costs.

The research has been published, 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 harsh conditions including incredibly arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha could capture approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists 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 great development, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 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 researchers state that a vital element of the plan would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are wanting to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short term service to environment modification.

"I think it is a good concept since we are truly extracting co2 from the atmosphere - and it is entirely different in between extracting and preventing."

According to the scientist's computations the expenses of suppressing co2 by means of the planting of trees would be in 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 but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel say the scientists, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large 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 extremely successful in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once viewed as the excellent, green hope the reality was really various.

"When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land," she said.

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

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the of the concept.

"It is still someone else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn't in fact cause?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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