Fixing Carbon Dummies' GuideCarbon Storage 101
MORE CARBONALL LAB BOOKS* Carbon is sequestered naturally in many ways — particularly by the world's oceans and trees. However, with trees the rates vary, depending on the species of tree and location. * For example, American scientists calculate that in the lower Mississippi River Valley, approximately 300 trees per acre will sequester approximately 400 tons of carbon dioxide over 100 years. Therefore, on a per planted tree basis, each tree absorbs an average of 1.33 tons of carbon dioxide over 100 years. This equates to 0.13 tons per year. * CO2 is also sequestered as a constituent of certain rocks. Limestone contains plenty of carbon, safely locked away in a form that is stable over millions of years — but unfortunately, it also takes millions of years to create it in the first place. Researchers at Arizona State University think they have come up with a way to dramatically speed up that process of rock formation. * Olivine and serpentine are common, inexpensive minerals — and they have been used as "fuel" for a reaction that turns CO2 into magnesium carbonate, a type of limestone. The downside is that a huge supply of these minerals would be needed to keep the whole process going, and we'd end up hollowing out mountains to get enough material. * One way of dealing with this would be to replace the rock mined to make these minerals with all the limestone the process would creat — and in that way, the carbon is locked away for millennia to come. * This technology is expensive, though — it costs $70 to eliminate a ton of carbon dioxide, a figure that needs to come down if this technology is to become viable. |
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