Mon 10 Mar 2008
Why is co2 always seen as a problem and not a useful resource? For instance large water tanks or reservoirs could be built inside or adjacent to power plants, pumped full of plant life (eg plankton)and exposed to sunlight. The co2 could then be pumped into the water and used to promote photosynthesis thus creating O2 and energy. Why is this not being considered as a possible solution to co2 emissions?
Posted by chrisjones6 answers so far!
In Saskatchewan, there’s a lot of research going into something called carbon capture and sequestration. The CO2 is captured, and stored underground in used-up oil wells. In addition to keeping the CO2 out of the atmosphere, the process has the bonus of squeezing more oil out of the wells than they’re able to extract with traditional methods.
Wikipedia has more.
Richard Branson is offering a $25 million prize to whoever can figure out how to remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a large scale. One idea that’s come up is to use some fast-growing biomass to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere; then burn the biomass, capture the carbon, and sequester it.
The plankton-in-a-tank idea is similar, but I don’t think you’ve considered what happens when the plankton runs out of space, dies, and decays: the CO2 will be released again.
There has been some talk of using algae living in the output of power plants to both clean some of the co2 and provide an input for bio fuels.
Here is a company that does exactly that. This is a idea that has been worked on for decades (though the focus is on algae, not plankton). It also isn’t a magic bullet that will completely solve the problem of global warming.
A great deal of sequestered CO2 will be liberated if Chinese Democracy is released this year.