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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 say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the concept might be have unexpected, negative impacts consisting of driving up food costs.

The research has been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is very well adapted to harsh conditions consisting of extremely arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists revealed that one hectare of jatropha could capture approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the .

"The results are overwhelming," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was good growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.

According to the scientists 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 20 year period.

The scientists say that a vital element of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wanting to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term solution to climate change.

"I think it is a good concept since we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is totally various between extracting and avoiding."

According to the researcher's computations the expenses of curbing co2 by means of 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 innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel state the researchers, supplying a financial return.

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

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the truth was extremely various.

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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