Techdirt.: DailyDirt: Carbon Capture And Sequestration Schemes

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DailyDirt: Carbon Capture And Sequestration Schemes Mar 28th 2013, 00:00 Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) efforts are an important part in the mitigation of global warming, but unfortunately, progress has been rather slow, and at its current pace, the world won't be able to meet climate change targets by 2020. There are only eight active CCS projects worldwide right now, and most of them involve pumping waste carbon dioxide down into oil wells to flush out hard-to-reach crude oil, while also storing 23 million tons of carbon dioxide underground each year. Here are a few other CCS ideas. Researchers have discovered that ocean plankton actually take up almost twice as much carbon dioxide than previously calculated. They also found that plankton living in warmer, nutrient-starved areas tend to take up higher levels of carbon dioxide. [url] Direct extraction of carbon dioxide from seawater to make zero-emissions synfuel may be cheaper than extracting carbon dioxide from the air. This is because the concentration of carbon dioxide, which is very soluble in water, is about 140 times higher in the ocean than it is in the atmosphere. [url] A "rogue" American businessman reportedly dumped 100 tons of iron sulfate into the ocean off the west coast of Canada to promote the growth of carbon-dioxide-absorbing plankton. His ocean fertilization experiment, which may have violated two UN conventions, has resulted in an artificial plankton bloom as large as 10,000 square kilometers. However, scientists are still debating whether this is a viable long-term solution for carbon sequestration, and they're concerned that it could end up irreparably harming ocean ecosystems and eventually worsening global warming. [url] If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

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