Carbon storage: how it works, what it means
An oil refinery on the Delaware River. Photo: Doc Searls
Climate experts have recommended cutting carbon emissions by 80% in the next thirty years. But the world is deeply rooted in a fossil fuel powered infrastructure, and some say it’s impossible to switch immediately to renewable energy resources.
Carbon capture and storage, or sequestration, is seen as a potential bridge from coal and gas to solar and wind power. Earth & Sky’s Lindsay Patterson spoke with two experts on the subject in order to understand how it works and what it means.
Lynn Orr is the director of Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University. Later on in this broadcast, Lindsay Patterson also speaks with Elizabeth Wilson, who specializes in the regulation and policy of carbon sequestration at the University of Minnesota.
First up, Lynn Orr. He explained what carbon sequestration is and how it will work.
Lindsay Patterson asked Elizabeth Wilson to explain how carbon sequestration looks in the bigger picture of mitigating climate change.
NEW! Find related content with Sphere
There might be a problem with “carbon sequestration” I have not heard anyone address.
When people talk of “carbon sequestration” it usually means pumping CO2 into old oil wells or such. In nature when carbon is sequestered it is in the form of just carbon from plants, with out the oxygen.
If a lot of CO2 is pumped underground, a lot of oxygen is lost. What long term effect will this have on the planet?
Mr. Crook:
I agree. It seems shortsighted to me. In my resading about the carbon storage, I’ve not read any research about long-term effects. Wouldn’t one think that our current greenhouse gas situation would teach us to consider long term effects of our actions in terms of energy use?
Thank you.
Carbon capture and storage is terrifying to me. To think that we would inject the earth with carbon dioxide and safely store it for hundreds if not thousands of years is like taking nuclear waste, putting it in barrels and throwing it on the bottom of the sea. What will future generations have to contend with? Let’s see, they have to monitor the nuclear waste that we bury for 1000’s of years and now we want them to monitor our “carbon capture.” What a catchy phrase carbon capture. Wouldn’t it be easier to just not manufacture it to begin with?
Gretchie:
“Easier” isn’t what it’s all about. “Lucrative” IS what it’s all about. And, of course, not lucrative for you or me… or are you an oil company executive? I’m not.
Where possible, why not pump the carbon waste down dissused coal mines: I wont be any worse than the coal which was removed which is carbon anyway: I cannot see anything wrong with pumping carbon underground so long as its deep enough, and maybe one day in the future we may find ways of using it for the benefits of mankind: Who Knows ??
Maybe we’ll find ways of using nuclear waste for the benefits of humankind too. maybe….
Storing CO2 is like putting radio active waste in steel drums. IT AIN’T GOINA STAY WHERE you put it. Put the carbon back into trees and plants that will hold it and take more CO2 out of the atmosphere and put O2 back into the atmosphere. Eliminate fossil fuels and go to H2 that will produce heat and H2O when burned.
“Eliminate fossil fuels and go to H2 that will produce heat and H2O when burned.”
Another useless idea.
You need electricity to produce Hydrogen. That electricity must come from burning fossil fuels or from nuclear reactors.
There is no free lunch.
Kenneth:
But the cheapest lunches are the sun and the wind, would you agree?
cheapest lunches are water,sun and wind.as long as it rains the wind blows and the sun shins. Are land fills with plastc and paper not carbon storeage?
um…yes i agree with sequestration but, we need to figure out what the long term effects of this will be.
hopefully the end result will not be the death of every man, women and child.
Carbon is rarely found in its elemental form. It is found in hydrocarbons, sugars, carbonates, CO2, Amino acids, and etc. I can’t help but think that carbon sequestering in a large scale will hinder the carbon cycle of the planet eco system.
Carbon Is Gold!
Our new systems make carbon sequestration profitable and overcome
the objection to it by creating a new carbon economy wherein it has
value and is not waste. We use carbon to enhance agriculture and save
most of the 70% of all water now used in agriculture.
The systems are under Patents Pending. You can read all about it at
our website at: http://www.geocities.com/profadrian/SCAF.html
Adrian Vance