Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
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Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists state that planting big numbers of in desert locations might be a reliable method of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics state the idea could be have unanticipated, negative effects consisting of increasing food rates.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of very dry 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 could capture approximately 25 tonnes of co2 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," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was good development, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start," he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.
The scientists state that an important aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.
They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, brief term option to climate modification.
"I think it is a good idea since we are really drawing out co2 from the atmosphere - and it is completely different between extracting and preventing."
According to the scientist's computations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide 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 presently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not just takes in 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 say the scientists, offering a financial return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in dealing with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once seen as the terrific, green hope the reality was very various.
"When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.
"But there are typically individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location - we would not class the land as limited."
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 idea.
"It is still someone else's land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn't actually cause?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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