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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 say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics say the concept could be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts consisting of driving up food prices.
The research study has actually been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is really well adjusted to severe conditions including very dry deserts.
It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might capture approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees presently 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 great development, 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 start,” he stated.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The scientists say that a critical aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.
They are intending 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 might be an excellent, brief term solution to climate change.
“I think it is an excellent concept since we are really extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally different between drawing out and avoiding.”
According to the scientist’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be 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 number of nations are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, offering an economic 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 point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was really various.
“When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she said.
“But there are frequently people who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as minimal.”
She pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.
“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these people 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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