Carbon

For years people have been wondering how to take carbon out of the air.  People have tried everything from filtering it out of the air to injecting it into the ground.  None of these ideas would work very well, either because they require challenging technology, high risks, or they simply cannot be done on a scale that would matter.  I came up with an idea that would be practical, use entirely proven, safe technology and most importantly, scale to a level that could truly turn the tide on global warming.  One of the best parts is that with my idea the carbon dioxide wouldn’t get back into the air very easily.

My idea would use the power of trees to take carbon out of the air.  When they are alive, trees take the carbon out of co2 and release o2.  When the trees die, the carbon is typically released back into the air as co2, along with a more potent greenhouse gas, Methane, when they decompose.  My idea is to take the dead trees and other scrap wood, and turn them into charcoal.  Any scrap wood could be used, and there is plenty available.  The resulting charcoal can’t rot so it will not be released into the air.  As you may have noticed, I am not proposing taking CO2 out of the air, I am proposing taking carbon out of the air and leaving the O2 to help improve the quality of our atmosphere.

The resulting charcoal could be disposed of, or stored in a variety of safe and stable ways.  It could be ground up and used as a fertilizer, buried, or even dumped into the ocean without causing harm and minimizing it’s re-release into the atmosphere.

How it works:

Scrap wood is put into a retort and heated until it becomes charcoal.  The heat source can even come from the gas that is produced as the cellulose in wood is decomposed by heat into carbon.  Charcoal will not rot so it won’t release the carbon back into the atmosphere. This idea would stop the 86 million tons of scrap wood that people generate every year from rotting then releasing co2.

©Gabriel Bay 2010