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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon to curb 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 locations might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics say the idea might be have unpredicted, negative impacts including increasing food costs.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions consisting of exceptionally arid deserts.
It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world because its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The results are overwhelming,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was excellent growth, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.
The researchers state that a crucial element of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.
They are wishing to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, brief term service to environment change.
“I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is totally various between extracting and avoiding.”
According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide via 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 technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, offering an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in dealing with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the truth was really various.
“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she stated.
“But there are often people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as minimal.”
She mentioned that jatropha is highly poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the concept.
“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t really trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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