How can we deal with carbon?

Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical or physical processes. If the human-impact of fossil fuel use and our high level of carbon footprint, then we must find ways to 1) limit the initial production of carbon through clean energy and renewables while, 2) finding was to capture carbon before it hits our ecosystem. This is called carbon sequestration or carbon dioxide remove (CDR).

A quick review: carbon dioxide (CO₂) is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through artificial processes to produce similar effects. This is a complex study of scientists and engineers to find long-term removal, capture (sequestration) of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to slow or reverse CO₂ pollution and to mitigate or reverse global warming.

Some artificial sequestration techniques use natural processes, while some scientists are exploring the use of entirely artificial processes.

Natural Method

Natural iron fertilization can enhance carbon sequestration. Sperm whales act as agents of iron fertilization when they transport iron from the deep ocean to the surface during prey consumption and defecation. Sperm whales have been shown to increase the levels of primary production and carbon export to the deep ocean by depositing iron rich feces into surface waters of the Southern Ocean. The iron rich feces causes phytoplankton to grow and take up more carbon from the atmosphere.

When the phytoplankton dies, some of it sinks to the deep ocean and takes the atmospheric carbon with it.

By reducing the abundance of sperm whales in the Southern Ocean, whaling has resulted in an extra 200,000 tonnes of carbon remaining in the atmosphere each year. However, what is the impact on our already fragile microbial and Arctic ecosystem, and what natural processes are possible to capture/sequester or reverse CO₂ removal in our ice, water, land and animals? Let's see what scientists are doing as a mitigation approach, which the IPCC and UNFCCC agrees, needs to be explored.

Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and may refer specifically to:

"The process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a reservoir." When carried out deliberately, this may also be referred to as carbon dioxide removal which is a form of geoengineering.
Carbon capture and storage where carbon dioxide is removed from flue gases at power stations before being stored in underground reservoirs.
Natural biochemical cycling of carbon between the atmosphere and reservoirs, such as by chemical weathering of rocks.

Carbon dioxide may be captured as a pure by-product in processes related to petroleum refining or from flue gases from power generation. CO₂ sequestration includes the storage part of carbon capture and storage, which refers to large-scale, artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced CO₂ using subsurface saline aquifers reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil fields or other carbon sinks.

There are three ways that this sequestration can be carried out;

post-combustion capture
pre-combustion capture, and;
oxy-combustion

A wide variety of separation techniques are being pursued, including gas phase separation, absorption into a liquid, and adsorption on a solid, as well as hybrid processes, such as adsorption/membrane systems. These above processes basically will capture carbon emitting from power plants, factories, fuel burning industries and so on.

Let's see what the range of carbon capture processes are that are being explored by scientists and geoengineers.

Biological Processes

Peat bogs
Forestry - afforestation and reforestation (tree planting)
Urban forestry
Wetland restoration
Agriculture
Bamboo farming
Deep soil
Reducing emissions through farming techniques
Enhance carbon removal
Ocean iron fertilization
Urea fertilization
Mixing layers for algae bloom growth
Seaweed

Physical Processes

Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage
Burying biomass
Biochar burial
Ocean storage - highly contentious
Geological sequestration

Chemical Processes

Mineral carbonation
Electrochemical method
Industrial use
Chemical scrubbers
Basalt storage
Acid neutralization

Let's check and see what some geoengineering businesses are doing in the field of carbon capture today.