Carbon sequestration is crucial for fighting global warming. 45% of human-emitted CO2 stays in the air. This needs exploration of traditional (biological, geological) and modern methods (graphene, engineered molecules) to capture and repurpose carbon emissions.
In this article, we will learn how storage, removal and capturing of carbon is vital for earth’s climate.
What is meant by Carbon Sequestration?
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide gas that is released in the air to help prevent global warming and the greenhouse effect. The process helps in balancing Earth’s overall temperature.
In short, Carbon sequestration is the capturing, storage, and removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Statistically, about 45% of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans stays in the atmosphere.
Trees, forests and land naturally soak up around 25% of the carbon we release. The oceans take in about 30%.
But when there is excessive carbon dioxide in the air, it causes global warming, ocean expansion, unpredicted weather, and natural habitat damage, etc.
Talking about the need of Carbon Sequestration, according to Environmental Protection Agency,
"From 1990 to 2019, the total warming effect from greenhouse gases added by humans to the Earth’s atmosphere increased by 45 percent. The warming effect associated with carbon dioxide alone increased by 36 percent."
There is growing need to reduce and remove the excessive carbon from the atmosphere. Scientists and concerned environmentalists are looking for way to do so.
Carbon sequestration is considered as a key method for removing the excessive carbon the atmosphere of Earth. This is because, carbon dioxide remains a major contributing factor in global warming.
This can be achieved by biologically or geologically. These are basic methods.
Such methods are termed as Carbon Sequestration Methods.
Common Methods for Carbon Sequestration
There are two main ways we’ve been trying to keep too much carbon dioxide out of the air since the old days.
Traditionally, there are two ways to tackle the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air. They are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Biological Carbon Sequestration:
In biological carbon sequestration, living things such as plants and trees, as well as their habitats like soil and forests, naturally absorb carbon from the air.
Forests, soil, oceans, grassland, etc, are all indirect and natural storage means of carbon. These are termed as ‘carbon sinks’.
Plants use the natural process, photosynthesis, where they take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and release oxygen (O2).
The carbon taken in by plants can be stored in their roots or tissues, which helps remove it from the atmosphere.
Forests store twice as much carbon as they emit.
Planting more trees, restoring land used for farming or constructions, and promoting agricultural means in producing food are some of key ways we increase rates of biological carbon sequestration.
Forests and oceans together absorb around 50% of emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Water bodies mostly hold carbon in the upper layer.
One reason why too much carbon presence can acidify the water.
Geological Carbon Sequestration:
Geological method for carbon sequestration is storing carbon dioxide depsoits underground in rocks and deep soil.
The method involves the capture of CO2 emissions from factories and power plants, where it’s turned into liquid under high pressure.
Then, it’s pumped deep underground, and not provided with an escape route into the air.
This is a mean of direct or mostly artificial carbon removal from earth’s atmosphere.
This is an effective method to reduce global warming by keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Modern/Latest Methods of Carbon Sequestration:
New modern technology has helped scientists to come up with latest processes in carbon sequestration.
These involves finding ways to use the excessive greenhouse gases in industries and other processes.
The excessive carbon produced is turned to useful means by latest technology.
Graphene Production:
Carbon, due to its chemistry, is a special element that can take on different forms called allotropes. Two common forms are diamond and graphite.
Diamond, as we all know, is super hard and super expensive. While graphite is really soft and can even be used in pencils.
Modern science has made it possible to turn carbon emissions into graphene. Graphene is being used to make latest tech gadgets.
Engineered Molecules:
Scientists have created special molecules that can transform their shape to grab onto carbon dioxide from the air.
These molecules are specifically designed to catch and hold onto carbon molecules. In result, reducing their influence in climate change.
Direct Carbon Capture:
This technique is quite costly when used on a large scale. However, it is an effective method for industries to control their carbon footprint on the environment.
The process captures carbon from the release source. Instead of releasing CO2 into air, they catch it, cool it down, and put it into special chambers with liquid that can hold onto the carbon molecules.
Then, harmless gasses and emissions are released into the air.
However, modern methods are still under development. While promising, technologies like graphene production and engineered molecules for carbon capture are in early stages.
Direct air capture of carbon is expensive. Large-scale implementation is currently limited by costs.
What is the Importance of Carbon Sequestration? What is its Future?
We have already discussed in details about Carbon Footprint and why everyone needs to play their part in protecting and caring for the planet Earth. You can guess why Carbon sequestration is important in tackling global warming.
Burning fossil fuels to gain energy has become the norm since the Industrial Revolution.
But it has presented major problems for ‘Earth’s Life Support System’.
The biggest issue is greenhouse gases emissions from burning fossils for fuels.
Industries and factories, vehicles, are all human means of messing up the natural carbon balance in the atmosphere.
However, with strict laws and regulations, and new technologies we can reduce emission from. One way is to capture and store excessive Carbon dioxide being released at the sources.
Greenhouse gas emissions are at the heart of many environmental problems like global warming, extreme weather, floods, and more.
Scientists are actively looking for ways to control, reduce, and even eliminate the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Carbon sequestration is thus needed to address environmental issues.
Negative Emissions Technologies
The amount of CO2 in our atmosphere is predicted to outpace safe levels. This would be leading to serious climate change consequences.
To control the exceeding amount of Carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, we need technologies that can actually remove CO2 from the air.
These technologies that are equipped to do the job are called negative emissions technologies (NETs).
Negative emission technological methods can not only capture CO2 emitted in the past but also offset new emissions from industries.
These methods can directly remove CO2 from the air or store it in different ways than conventional means.
As the scientific community pushes for stricter emission limits, technologies like using bioenergy, ocean liming (augmented ocean disposal), direct air capture, use of biochar, the Lime-Soda process, along with capturing and storing CO2 become more and more vital and viable to limit carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Ultimately, mitigating rising global temperatures and climate change.
You can explore more about the topic in Grantham Institute for Climate Change’s paper on Negative Emissions Technologies.
