Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage tasks.

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

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is effectively adapted to extreme conditions consisting of incredibly dry deserts.

It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world because its seeds can produce oil.

In this research study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide 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," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was excellent growth, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start," he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that a vital aspect of the plan would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are intending to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short term solution to climate change.

"I think it is a great idea since we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is totally different between extracting and avoiding."

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 methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A variety of are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. 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 developed into biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the great, green hope the truth was very various.

"When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she said.

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

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

"It is still somebody else's land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these people didn't really cause?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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