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 areas could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

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

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is very well adjusted to severe conditions consisting of very dry 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 showed that one of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

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

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that an important component of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are wanting to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term solution to environment modification.

"I think it is a great idea because we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is totally different in between drawing out 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 number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers 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 extremely successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the great, green hope the truth was very different.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is highly hazardous and can contaminate 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 enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn't really trigger?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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