Carbon Sequestration

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Carbon Sequestration

• Red Balansay
• ESS 315

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What Is It?

• Also known as carbon capture
• A geoengineering technique for the long-term
  storage of carbon dioxide (or other forms of
  carbon) for the mitigation of global warming
• More than 33 billion tons of carbon emissions
  (annual worldwide)
• Ways that carbon can be stored (sequestered)
• In plants and soil terrestrial sequestration
  (carbon sinks)
• Underground geological sequestration
• Deep in ocean ocean sequestration
• As a solid material (still in development)

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Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration
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Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration

• The process through which CO2 from the atmosphere
  is absorbed naturally through photosynthesis
  stored as carbon in biomass soils.
• Tropical deforestation is responsible for 20 of
  worlds annual CO2 emissions, though offset by
  uptake of atmospheric CO2 by forests and
  agriculture
• Ways to reduce greenhouse gases
• avoiding emissions by maintaining existing carbon
  storage in trees and soils
• increasing carbon storage by tree planting or
  conversion from conventional to conservation
  tillage practices on agricultural lands

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Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration (continued)

• Carbon seq. rates differ based on the species of
  tree, type of soil, regional climate, topography
  management practice
• Pine plantations in SE United States can
  accumulate almost 100 metric tons of carbon per
  acre after 90 years ( 1 metric ton 1 year)
• Carbon accumulation eventually reaches saturation
  point where additional sequestration is no longer
  possible (when trees reach maturity, or when the
  organic matter in soils builds back up to
  original levels before losses occurred)
• After saturation, the trees or agricultural
  practices still need to be sustained to maintain
  the accumulated carbon and prevent subsequent
  losses of carbon back to the atmosphere

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Geological Sequestration
Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium
(Illinois)
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Geological Sequestration

• Storing of CO2 underground in rock formations
  able to retain large amounts of CO2 over a long
  time period
• Held in small pore spaces (have held oil and nat.
  gas for millions of years)

Layers shown Coal, brine aquifer, gas bearing
sandstone, gas bearing shale
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Geological Sequestration (continued)

• Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium
  (Illinois Basin)
• 1/7 regional partnerships selected to determine
  the best approaches for capturing and storing CO2
  that might otherwise contribute to global climate
  change
• assess geological carbon sequestration options in
  the 60,000 square mile Illinois Basin (Within the
  Basin are deep, noneconomic coal resources,
  numerous mature oil fields and deep saline rock
  formations with potential to store CO2)
• Feb 2009 Successfully completed 8,000 ft deep
  injection well
• By 2013, a total of one million metric tons of
  carbon dioxide (roughly the annual emissions of
  220,000 automobiles) is expected to be stored
  within the formation.

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Ocean Sequestration
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Ocean Sequestration

• Carbon is naturally stored in the ocean via two
  pumps, solubility and biological, and there are
  analogous man-made methods, direct injection and
  ocean fertilization, respectively. Eventually
  equilibrium between the ocean and the atmosphere
  will be reached with or without human
  intervention and 80 of the carbon will remain in
  the ocean. The same equilibrium will be reached
  whether the carbon is injected into the
  atmosphere or the ocean. The rational behind
  ocean sequestration is simply to speed up the
  natural process.

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Ocean Sequestration

• Carbon sequestration by direct injection into the
  deep ocean involves the capture, separation,
  transport, and injection of CO2 from land or
  tankers  
• 1/3 of CO2 emitted a year already enters the
  ocean
• Ocean has 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere

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National Energy Technology Laboratory
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National Energy Technology Laboratory

• (NETL)
• Develop technologies to capture, separate, and
  store carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to reduce
  greenhouse gas emissions without adversely
  influencing energy use or hindering economic
  growth
• Contributes greatly to Obamas goal of the
  development of technologies to reduce greenhouse
  gas emissions
• NETL envisions having a technology portfolio of
  safe, cost-effective, commercial-scale greenhouse
  gas capture, storage, and mitigation technologies
  that are available for commercial deployment
  beginning in 2020.

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National Energy Technology Laboratory

• NETLs primary Carbon Sequestration Research
  Development Objectives
• lowering the cost and energy penalty associated
  with CO2 capture from large point sources
• improving the understanding of factors affecting
  CO2 storage permanence, capacity, and safety in
  geologic formations and terrestrial ecosystems
• Once met, new and existing power plants and fuel
  processing facilities in the U.S. (and around the
  world) will have the potential to be retrofitted
  with CO2 capture technologies.

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Offset Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

• At the global level, the IPCC Third Assessment
  Report estimates that 100 billion metric tons of
  carbon over the next 50 years could be
  sequestered through forest preservation, tree
  planting and improved agricultural management.
• Offset 10-20 of estimated fossil fuel emissions
• Obamas Clean Coal Plan
• fund five essentially pilot projects with
  commercial scale coal-fired power plants that
  have carbon capture sequestration

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Offset Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

• Carbon Sequestration is not yet viable at a
  commercial level
• Small scale projects demonstrated (lab
  experiments) but CS is still a developing
  technology
• Concern with injecting carbon dioxide into ground
  or ocean because fear of leaks into water table
  or escape of CO2 into a massive bubble that can
  potentially suffocate humans and animals

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Sources

• Overview
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration
• http//www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/carbon_seq/in
  dex.html
• Obama
• http//www.cleanairconservancy.org/blogDetail.php?
  id486
• http//my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy_m
  orerelief
• Terrestrial Sequestration
• http//www.epa.gov/sequestration/faq.html
• Geological Sequestration
• http//sequestration.org/
• http//www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/sequestratio
  n/geologic/index.html
• Ocean Sequestration
• http//www.princeton.edu/chm333/2002/fall/co_two/
  oceans/