Where dumped carbon goes
Tom Goreau
Many people who don’t understand marine biology are fooling themselves about where carbon is and is not consumed.
Here in the fjords of southern Patagonia I’m working with local researchers at the Centro de Investigaciones de las Ecosistemas de la Patagonia to reduce impacts of pollution from the floating salmon farms that provide the US with most of its salmon.
The uneaten food and excrement piles up in big black rotting piles on the bottom which are covered with white sulfide oxidizing bacteria, and are turning the bottom waters anoxic.
Local ecosystems, marine resources, and indigenous fishing communities who have fished these waters for 20,000 years, are being wiped out so Americans can have cheap salmon.
Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance
Chief Scientist, Blue Regeneration SL
President, Biorock Technology Inc.
Technical Advisor, Blue Guardians Programme, SIDS DOCK
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
gor...@globalcoral.org
www.globalcoral.org
Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226 (leave message)
Books:
Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466595392
Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466557734
No one can change the past, everybody can change the future
It’s much later than we think, especially if we don’t think
Those with their heads in the sand will see the light when global warming and sea level rise wash the beach away
Geotherapy: Regenerating ecosystem services to reverse climate change
From: Clive Elsworth <cl...@endorphinsoftware.co.uk>
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 2:32 AM
To: Tom Goreau <gor...@globalcoral.org>, Michael Hayes <electro...@gmail.com>, Sarah Burgess <sarah.s...@gmail.com>
Cc: Carbon Dioxide Removal <carbondiox...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [CDR] Sister industries/technologies to Direct Air Capture
Yes, so better to let nature do it on a vast scale by very diffusely fertilising large areas of ocean by aerosol, mimicking the effect of airborne dust.
Even better, deploy cheap floating habitat that poses is no danger to shipping, to allow larger organisms to grow and then detach and sink quickly without depleting oxygen to the seabed, where they pile up in anoxic sediments. Such sediments sequester carbon permanently and release alkalinity and further nutrients by natural processes that have been taking place for billions of years.
Clive
On 28/02/2023 00:32 GMT Tom Goreau <gor...@globalcoral.org> wrote:
Equilibration between CO2 and bicarbonate is slow process, limited by the kinetics of CO2 hydration to carbonic acid, which is greatly speeded up by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which evolved specifically to overcome this limitation.
Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef AllianceChief Scientist, Blue Regeneration SL
President, Biorock Technology Inc.Technical Advisor, Blue Guardians Programme, SIDS DOCK
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
gor...@globalcoral.org
www.globalcoral.org
Skype: tomgoreau
Tel: (1) 617-864-4226 (leave message)
Books:
Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466595392
Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration
http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466557734
No one can change the past, everybody can change the future
It’s much later than we think, especially if we don’t think
Those with their heads in the sand will see the light when global warming and sea level rise wash the beach away
Geotherapy: Regenerating ecosystem services to reverse climate change
From: <carbondiox...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Michael Hayes <electro...@gmail.com>
Date: Monday, February 27, 2023 at 7:10 PM
To: Sarah Burgess <sarah.s...@gmail.com>
Cc: Carbon Dioxide Removal <carbondiox...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [CDR] Sister industries/technologies to Direct Air Capture
Sarah, if alkiline seawater is sprayed into the air, just that will directly 'capture' and/or 'convert' CO2. Exactly how much of each still needs to be verified. This form of Direct Ocean Capture/Conversion makes many of the limitations found in typical DAC operations rather moot.
Most importantly, creating alkiline seawater using electrolysis can generate a H2 fuel as a byproduct. Addressing both DAC, or DOC, technical needs and emissions reduction needs can use the same tech basket.
The technical basket needed for this form of mCDR is available now, the governance of such a potentially large industry is being created now through the efforts of the likes of NOAA, ARPA-E, and the socio-political concerns including indigenous communities and small island nations are a priority.
Best regards
On Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 7:08 AM Sarah Burgess <sarah.s...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi CDR Experts,
I'm a consultant who is interested in Direct Air Capture and community engagement. My question to this group is: what industry or technology is most similar to Direct Air Capture?
Some comparisons I've heard include:
- Like where solar was 30 years ago - tech is developed but now it needs to scale so the price can come down
- Like wind farms - lots of fans!
- Most like various chemical processing plants (have heard this general comparison made, but would love to hear from you experts - which type of chemical processing exactly)
Thanks all for any input you can provide.
Sarah
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Clive Elsworth
Tom
I prefer to see the big picture.
As I understand it, what happens in most sediments is mainly sulfate (an oxidant far more abundant in the ocean than oxygen) is used by microbes to oxidize organics to sulfurized organics, a form of essentially permanent sequestration. That reaction is the main source of the huge kerogen deposits in the continents, and why crude oil often has a high sulfur content.
In highly simplified form, alkalinity is released as carbonate ions:
3 [CH2O] + SO42- à CO32- + 2 H2O + [(CHO)2S]
carbonate (alkaline) sapropel (inert)
In the extreme aquaculture example you give, the rate of deposition of organic material is so high that the microbes in the anoxic sediment end up reducing sulfate all the way down to sulfide, some of which then leaks out into bottom waters as H2S. That then gets oxidised by the microbes you mention, depleting bottom waters of oxygen.
Clive
Tom Goreau
This is happening in all coastal areas subject to eutrophication, turning first sediments and then bottom waters anoxic.