#57 What is carbon removal?

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Your faithful writer,
Dr. Daniel Smith

What if there was a way to reverse climate change?

Ok, it’s not that simple.

But carbon removal, a new set of technological techniques for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, could help to offset manmade CO2 emissions and slow the pace of climate change.

Carbon removal is short for carbon dioxide (CO2) removal.

The term is generally used to describe processes for removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

The CO2 is then stored in long-term sinks, such as forests, oceans, geological formations, or engineered systems, with the aim of mitigating climate change by reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

There is also the related concept of Carbon Capture, which refers to efforts to minimize CO2 emissions at the point that they’re produced, i.e. as part of combustion engines used to power industrial processes like manufacturing.

Carbon removal and carbon capture both collect CO2 that then needs to be stored or utilized in some other way.

Does carbon removal actually work? Carbon removal techniques are still quite new, and none of them have been proven to work at scale.

The hope — for people working in the industry and for humanity at large — is that further research and development could lead to the invention of carbon removal techniques that can be scaled to a massive size.

A new report estimated that investments in carbon removal technology will need to increase from less than $10B annually today to more than $200B per year by 2030 if the carbon removal sector is to make a difference on global warming. (CDR in the image below refers to Carbon Dioxide Removal)

Carbon removal could become a multi-trillion dollar industry, if — and only if — it is effective at scale.

Different Types of Carbon Removal

Researchers are exploring dozens of ways to remove & store carbon, but a few methods have stood out from the rest of the crowd:

Direct Air Capture: Direct air capture (DAC) is a process that involves removing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere using specialized technology.

This technology typically employs chemical reactions or absorbent materials to capture CO2 molecules from the air. Once captured, the CO2 can be stored underground or utilized in various industrial processes.

Direct ocean capture: This technique involves capturing CO2 from seawater and converting it into mineralized forms that can then be stored in the water or the ground.

Soil carbon sequestration: This technique involves agricultural practices (like no-till farming and crop rotation) to increase the amount of carbon held in soil. 

This could also improve soil fertility and water retention.

Biochar sequestration: Biochar is a type of charcoal that is made by the pyrolysis process, which involves heating biomass in the absence of oxygen.

After it is created, biochar is added to soil to sequester carbon and improve fertility.

ART OF THE DAY

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Yours,
Dan