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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists state that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics say the concept could be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects consisting of increasing food costs.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe 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 a person hectare of jatropha might catch up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The outcomes are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was great development, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The scientists state that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.
They are wanting to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, brief term solution to climate change.
“I believe it is a good idea because we are really drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various in between extracting and preventing.”
According to the the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide 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 variety of countries are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, supplying a financial return.
“Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.
But other experts in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot 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 supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the terrific, green hope the truth was really various.
“When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she stated.
“But there are often 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 pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.
“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t in fact trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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