The best carbon capture device is the ocean, and for the last 10 years or so huge amounts of free-floating sargassum seaweed have grown in warm ocean waters around the world. Nobody is certain why the sargassum has appeared in such volume lately, but it's plausible to speculate that increased CO2 in ocean water plays a role. As far as I can see the only remotely efficient way to sequester carbon at scale is to leverage the ocean by gathering the seaweed and dumping it on marginal or desert land, both to trap the carbon and fertilize the soil, thus promoting additional carbon-binding plant growth.
Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
211–220 of 349 posts
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#212The best carbon capture device is the ocean, and for the last 10 years or so huge amounts of free-floating sargassum seaweed have grown in warm ocean waters around the world. Nobody is certain why the sargassum has appeared in such volume lately, but it's plausible to speculate that increased CO2 in ocean water plays a role. As far as I can see the only remotely efficient way to sequester carbon at scale is to levera…
As a layman on this topic, but assuming the gathering requires fossil fuel and probably lots of it given the scale, is it feasible to do the gathering in a net negative carbon way?
I feel like anything I hear about that teases net negative sequestration at scale eventually falls apart or is found to be akin to a perpetual energy machine that eventually is debunked.
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#213The best carbon capture device is the ocean, and for the last 10 years or so huge amounts of free-floating sargassum seaweed have grown in warm ocean waters around the world. Nobody is certain why the sargassum has appeared in such volume lately, but it's plausible to speculate that increased CO2 in ocean water plays a role. As far as I can see the only remotely efficient way to sequester carbon at scale is to levera…
> leverage the ocean by gathering the seaweed and dumping it on marginal or desert land
Why would it gather more CO2 over there than it does where it already is?
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#214The best carbon capture device is the ocean, and for the last 10 years or so huge amounts of free-floating sargassum seaweed have grown in warm ocean waters around the world. Nobody is certain why the sargassum has appeared in such volume lately, but it's plausible to speculate that increased CO2 in ocean water plays a role. As far as I can see the only remotely efficient way to sequester carbon at scale is to levera…
> leverage the ocean by gathering the seaweed and dumping it on marginal or desert land Why would it gather more CO2 over there than it does where it already is?
They're suggesting to harvest it and sequester it elsewhere, making room for more to grow.
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If we don't have the political will to reduce the amount going into the air then what makes anyone think we would have the political will to build out some system to capture and sequester? Because political will requires coordination, building systems and turning them on doesn't have to! > We need to focus more on not putting CO2 into the air and less on trying to take it out. What part of the "we" in this coordina…
The is one trick that doesn't require political will. If you can make the microeconomics work it can be made to scale it self. E.G. Make CO2 extraction so cheap it's worth everyone doing it and say, make a market to sell the CO2 to farmers. Then make burying inedible bits of plants so cheap it's done on a large scale. Then you just wait. Microeconomics takes over. They did this with plastic clean up. By building a ma…
Buried plants make methane…
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#216The best carbon capture device is the ocean, and for the last 10 years or so huge amounts of free-floating sargassum seaweed have grown in warm ocean waters around the world. Nobody is certain why the sargassum has appeared in such volume lately, but it's plausible to speculate that increased CO2 in ocean water plays a role. As far as I can see the only remotely efficient way to sequester carbon at scale is to levera…
As a layman on this topic, but assuming the gathering requires fossil fuel and probably lots of it given the scale, is it feasible to do the gathering in a net negative carbon way? I feel like anything I hear about that teases net negative sequestration at scale eventually falls apart or is found to be akin to a perpetual energy machine that eventually is debunked.
If only there were a carbon-free method to move vessels across the water.
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#217I am not against doing research in this area, please do, it is interesting and likely has many applications but global CO2 removal isn't one of them. Nothing proposed, including this, is within any orders of magnitude of a viable solution. The only solution we have is put less in the air in the first place. This tech looks interesting for transporting CO2 but that doesn't mean it sequesters it and even if sequestrati…
I think you have a point. It could be difficult to justify the cost of carbon capture based on sequestration alone. One of the reasons I think this might still work is that captured carbon can be used to create platform chemicals (various hydrocarbons) using the fischer tropsch process. Electrofuels are using direct air capture to generate fossil replacements. Only requirement is energy and there too it isn't all tha…
Giant miscanthus can grow on land that's not viable for farming food (other than grazing grasses), has a lot of properties that ready it for becoming charcoal (high tonnage per acre, self drying, minimal inputs needed). Without a price for carbon, it's hard to make it work, though.
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a layman on this topic, but assuming the gathering requires fossil fuel and probably lots of it given the scale, is it feasible to do the gathering in a net negative carbon way? I feel like anything I hear about that teases net negative sequestration at scale eventually falls apart or is found to be akin to a perpetual energy machine that eventually is debunked.
If only there were a carbon-free method to move vessels across the water.
Maybe we could put a wind turbine on the boat, generate electrical power, and use that to power an onboard motor!
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only there were a carbon-free method to move vessels across the water.
Maybe we could put a wind turbine on the boat, generate electrical power, and use that to power an onboard motor!
On good days you could use a solar collector to boil water and generate electricity with it
Re: Efficient method to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
If these forests are planted by humans, why do we think the dead trees would just be left to rot like you suggest vs being harvested for wood? The logic does not compute other than trying to make a ridiculous point.
What do you think happens to harvested wood?
why do you think it will only be used as fuel? it can also be used to build things with it