Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the idea is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the concept might be have unexpected, unfavorable effects including increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adapted to harsh conditions including very arid deserts.

It is currently 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 scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could catch 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 overwhelming," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was great development, a good 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 start," he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers state that a critical element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term service to climate modification.

"I think it is a great concept due to the fact that we are really drawing out co2 from the environment - and it is completely various between drawing out and preventing."

According to the scientist's calculations the expenses of suppressing co2 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 number of nations are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the scientists, supplying an economic return.

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

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in managing dry .

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was extremely different.

"When jatropha was introduced it was seen 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 location - we would not class the land as limited."

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful 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 somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn't actually trigger?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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