Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the concept could be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts including increasing food rates.

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 effectively adapted to harsh conditions including very arid deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could capture as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their 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 growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start," 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 vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The researchers say that an important component of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. states that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, brief term option to environment modification.

"I think it is a good concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is completely various between drawing out and preventing."

According to the researcher's calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide via 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 nations are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up 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 researchers, offering a financial return.

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

But other specialists in this area are not convinced. 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 really successful in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly hazardous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.

"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn't really 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 method'

Published

15 April 2013

Related web links

Universit