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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

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Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists say the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the concept could be have unpredicted, unfavorable impacts consisting of increasing food prices.

The research has been released, external in the System Dynamics.

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions including incredibly arid deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha could record up to 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 great development, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists say that a crucial component of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are intending to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, brief term solution to environment modification.

"I believe it is an excellent concept due to the fact that we are really extracting co2 from the environment - and it is completely different between extracting and preventing."

According to the scientist's computations the expenses of suppressing co2 via the planting of trees would be in 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 number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying a financial return.

"Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.

But other experts in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, 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 stated.

"But there are frequently individuals who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as marginal."

She mentioned that jatropha is highly hazardous and can contaminate 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 massive plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn't really cause?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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