Cooling Climate Change with Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are 35% higher than at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and are now higher than at any time during the past 800,000 years. Global CO2 emissions are expected to at least double, if not triple, by the end of the century, increasing global warming and its impacts. Capturing and sequestering carbon is one way to help limit the magnitude of climate change.
One opportunity is to fit carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on coal-fired power plants—which emit about 50% of human-produced carbon dioxide. The technology could reduce a plant’s C O2 emissions by as much as 50 percent, while new plants could eventually produce 90 percent less CO2. However, monetary and energy costs of the technology are high, and no large power plant today captures and stores its carbon dioxide.
Methods to sequester excess carbon include planting new forests and using cover crops between planting seasons. In the oceans, intentionally introducing iron can stimulate the growth of carbon-eating phytoplankton blooms. Among the more futuristic plans is to capture carbon directly from the air, potentially reusing the carbon as fuel!
Learn more from six experts about the opportunities and challenges of each of these technologies.
Meeting Agenda
General background reading
Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change
Climate Stabilization Targets
Overview – Lynn Orr, Stanford University
Sequestration in Forests and Agricultural Systems – Ben Houlton, University of California, Davis
Carbon Capture from Power Plants – James Katzer, Exxon Mobile (retired) and Iowa State University
Geological Storage of Captured Carbon – Susan Hovorka, University of Texas, Austin
Ocean Sequestration – Anthony Michaels, Proteus Environmental Technologies, LLC
Direct Carbon Capture from Air – David Keith, Harvard University and Carbon Engineering
Facilitated Discussion: Roles for the National Research Council
