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Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the concept might be have unexpected, negative impacts consisting of driving up food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions including very arid 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 could capture 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 outcomes are frustrating," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was excellent growth, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The researchers say that an important element of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term option to environment change.

"I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are truly drawing out co2 from the environment - and it is totally different in between extracting and preventing."

According to the researcher's computations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide by means of 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 nations are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the researchers, supplying a financial return.

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

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the truth 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 successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once seen as the terrific, green hope the truth was very different.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely hazardous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these people didn't in fact trigger?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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