Carbon Sequestration

Capturing and storing carbon

pump it deep
underground
Global Tree planting into abandoned coal
Restore beds and oil and
program wetlands gas fields or to
liquefy it and inject it
into
sediments under the
sea floor
fast growing perennial
plants Preserving
natural seeding the oceans with
forests iron to promote growth
of marine algae and
Phytoplankton
(Ocean Fertilization)
 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)
Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration
 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 world’s 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
 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
• DAVE FROM US lists the Common Horse-
chestnut, Black Walnut, American Sweetgum,
Ponderosa Pine, Red Pine, White Pine, London
Plane, Hispaniolan Pine, Douglas Fir, Scarlet
Oak, Red Oak, Virginia Live Oak and Bald
Cypress as examples of trees especially good at
absorbing and storing CO2.
Geological Sequestration

Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (Illinois)

 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
 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.
Ocean Sequestration
 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.”
 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
National Energy Technology
Laboratory
 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 Obama’s 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.
 National Energy Technology
Laboratory
• NETL’s 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.
 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
• Obama’s Clean Coal Plan
– fund five essentially pilot projects with commercial scale coal-fired power plants that have
carbon capture & sequestration
 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
 Sources
• Overview:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration
• http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/carbon_seq/index.html
• Obama:
• http://www.cleanairconservancy.org/blogDetail.php?id=486
• http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy_more#relief
• Terrestrial Sequestration:
• http://www.epa.gov/sequestration/faq.html
• Geological Sequestration:
• http://sequestration.org/
• http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/sequestration/geologic/index.html
• Ocean Sequestration
• http://www.princeton.edu/~chm333/2002/fall/co_two/oceans/