Carbon Sequestration: What It Is?

A long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate

or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change.

More than 33 billion tons of carbon emissions are noticed (annual worldwide)

Factors to be considered- Cost and capacity of emission reduction

- the resulting increase in demand for primary energy sources, the range of
applicability, and the technical risk.
- Other important factors are the social and environmental consequences, the
safety of the technology, the security of storage and ease of monitoring and
verification
- The extent of opportunities to transfer the technology to developing countries.

Technological options for reducing net CO2 emissions to the atmosphere

include:
Reducing energy consumption
Switching to less carbon intensive fuels
Increasing the use of renewable energy sources or nuclear energy, each of

which emits little or no net CO2

Sequestering CO2 by enhancing biological absorption capacity in forests ,

soil and oceans

Capturing and storing CO2 chemically or physically.

CAPTURE OF CO2
There are three main approaches to CO2 capture, for industrial and power plant

applications.
1)

Post-combustion systems

2)

Oxy-fuel combustion ( still under development )

3)

Pre-combustion systems

1. Post-combustion capture
Capture of CO2 from flue gases produced by

combustion of fossil fuels and biomass in air.

Instead of being discharged directly to the

atmosphere, flue gas is passed through

equipment which separates most of CO2.
The CO2 is fed to a storage reservoir and the

remaining flue gas is discharged to the

atmosphere.
A chemical sorbent process would normally

be used for CO2 separation.

2. Oxy-fuel combustion capture

Pure oxygen is used for combustion instead

of air, resulting in a flue gas that is mainly

CO2 and H2O.
Oxygen

is usually produced by low

temperature air separation and to supply
oxygen to the fuel, membranes and chemical
looping cycles are being developed.

Result -> Almost pure carbon dioxide

stream can be obtained that can be

transported to the sequestration site and
stored.
The technique is promising, but the initial

air separation step demands a lot of energy.

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3. Pre-combustion capture
Pre-combustion capture involves reacting a fuel with oxygen or air or steam to

give mainly a synthesis gas or fuel gas composed of CO and H 2.

The carbon monoxide is reacted with steam in a catalytic reactor (shift

converter) to give CO2 and H2.

METHODS OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION

1. TERRRESTRIAL SEQUESTRATION
2. GEOLOGICAL SEQUASTRATION
3. OCEAN SEQUESTRATION

1. TERRRESTRIAL SEQUESTRATION
The process through which CO2 from the

atmosphere is absorbed naturally through

photosynthesis & stored as carbon in biomass &
soils.
Long-lived plants like trees might keep the carbon

sequestered for a long period of time.

Once the tree dies, or as limbs, leaves, seeds, or

blossoms drop from the tree, the plant material

decomposes and the carbon is released.
Tropical deforestation is responsible for 20% of

worlds annual CO2 emissions, though offset by

uptake of atmospheric CO2 by forests and
agriculture

Contd

Some carbon is captured within the soil and increases the soil's organic matter

content.
This soil organic carbon component has been calculated to be about twice the

amount of carbon present in the atmosphere, and about 2.5 times the amount of
carbon present in the plants living on the soil.
Greenhouse gases can be reduced by:
avoiding emissions by maintaining existing carbon storage in trees and soils
increasing carbon storage by tree planting or conversion from conventional

to conservation tillage practices on agricultural lands.

Contd
Carbon seq. rates differ based on the species of tree, type of soil, regional

climate, topography & management practice

Carbon accumulation eventually reaches saturation point where additional

sequestration is no longer possible (when trees reach maturity, or when the

organic matter in soils builds back up to original levels before losses
occurred)

After saturation, the trees or agricultural practices still need to be sustained

to maintain the accumulated carbon and prevent subsequent losses of

carbon back to the atmosphere

This method is relatively easy to implement, has volume limitations. It

might take over 2 lac of plants to offset the emissions from one average
power plant.

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2 GEOLOGICAL SEQUASTRATION
It is the method of Storing CO2 underground in rock formations which are able

to retain large amounts of CO2 over a long time period.

Storage

sites suggested
unminable coal seams

Declining oil

fields,

saline aquifers,

and

A ) Declining oil fields:

storage costs are offset by the sale of additional oil that is recovered.
1015% additional recovery of the original oil in place is possible
CO2 is soluble in oil.
The possible problems-> leakages of old oil wells,
- the high injection pressures and acidification which
can damage the geological barrier.
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B ) Unminable coal seams:

CO2 get absorbed to the coal surface, ensuring safe long-term storage.
In the process it releases methane.
sale of the methane can be used to offset the cost of the CO 2 storage.

c ) Saline aquifers :
Have a large potential storage volume and relatively common occurrence .
disadvantages ->

i) As the salinity of the water increases, less CO 2 can be dissolved into aqueous
solution.
ii) uncertainty about the structure of a given aquifer.
iii) Leakage of CO2 back into the atmosphere
However, current research shows that several trapping mechanisms immobilize

the CO2 underground and reduces the risk of leakage.

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3 OCEAN SEQUESTRATION
Captured CO2 is deliberately injected into

the ocean at great depth, where most of it

would remain isolated from the atmosphere
for centuries.
CO2 can be transported via pipeline or ship
for release in the ocean or on the sea floor.
Ocean storage has not yet been deployed or
thoroughly tested.
Over the past 200 years the oceans have
taken up 500 Gt CO2 from the atmosphere
out of 1300 Gt CO2 from total
anthropogenic emissions
Average depth of oceans is about 3800m;
so there is no practical physical limit to the
amount of CO2 that could be placed in the
ocean.
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Contd
Efficiency of ocean storage
Analyses of ocean observations and models agree that injected CO 2 will be
isolated from the atmosphere for several hundreds of years and that the
fraction retained tends to be larger with deeper injection.
Environmental impacts of ocean storage
Injection up to a few Gt CO2 would produce a measurable change in ocean
chemistry in the region of injection
Added CO2 can harm marine organisms
Chronic effects may set in with small degrees of long-term CO 2

accumulation

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Offset Greenhouse Gas Emissions

At the global level, the IPCC Third Assessment Report estimates that ~100

billion metric tons of carbon over the next 50 years could be sequestered
through forest preservation, tree planting and improved agricultural
management.
Carbon Sequestration is not yet viable at a commercial level
Carbon sequestration is still a developing technology
Concern with injecting carbon dioxide into ground or ocean, there is fear of

leaks into water table or escape of CO 2 into a massive bubble that can
potentially suffocate humans and animals

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CASE STUDY

Carbon sequestration by urban Trees on roadsides of Vadodara city

By : G Sandhya Kiran and Shah Kinnary (2011)
International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST) vol-3

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Abstract

CO2 is the most significant contributor to the human influence on the greenhouse

effect.
The CO2 is fixed as organic carbon accumulating in the form of biomass.
Findings in report suggest that 73.59 tones of CO 2 is removed by trees planted on

road sides of Vadodara city which represents 22% of the City's estimated total CO 2
production.
Total CO2 Emission at major roads was found around 159.47 tones because of

more number of automobiles as it is the third most-populated city in the Indian

state of Gujarat.
Results are restricted to the CO2 that is sequestered by trees planted only on road

sides excluding other carbon sinks.

It is therefore evident that tree planting on roadside are an effective method of

offsetting CO2 from human sources

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Key Words: Carbon Dioxide , Carbon Emission, Carbon Sequestration, Biomass.

Study area:
The present study was undertaken
along the mejor roads of vadodara
city within the Vadodara Municipal
Cooperation (VMC) limit .
The total road length within the

VMC
is
about
1000
km.
approximately covering area of
11.47 sq. km. which is 10.59% of the
total city area.

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MATERIALS AND METHOD

In this study, the aspect of the measurement of the amount of carbon was

based on the amount of standing woody biomass of trees on the road sides of
Vadodara City.
Initially the trees were sampled by quadrate method.
Quadrates of size 20m x 20m were taken at different roadsides and at the same

time measurements of GBH (cm) and Basal Area (m2) for different trees were
taken.
Based on these values standing woody biomass (T/ha)

and Carbon
sequestration rate of trees (T/ha) were calculated and then values were find
out for CO2 from C

then the comparison were done of Total Carbon emitted and sequestered from

all the road sites.

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Results and discussions

Tree cover provides benefits such as carbon storage and sequestration along

with the reduction in the air pollutant.

So the need for evaluating and assessing the roadside tree cover in an urban

ecosystem becomes imperative.

This green cover in the form of urban forest has a significant potential in

carbon sequestration.
The amount of carbon sequestered by these road side trees has amounted to

73.59 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

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21

Contd
All the 3 types of vehicles i.e. 2 wheelers, 3 wheelers and 4 wheelers were

observed.
Vehicular population showed increasing trend during last ten years. It showed

increasing strength of 2 wheelers when compared to 3 or 4 wheelers.

The contribution of carbon dioxide by each type of vehicle when taken into

consideration, each contributed 75.47, 45.15, 48.85 tones of carbon respectively

amounting to 159.47 tones of carbon dioxide
The existing tree population contributes only 22% in reducing carbon pollution

which needs to be increased to maintain the carbon cycle balance.

This can be achieved by increasing the tree cover by carrying out tree plantation

activities in the space available

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CONCLUSIONS
Cities are a major source of carbon dioxide emissions.
As demonstrated by this research paper urban trees planted on roadsides

can help in sequestering CO2 and mitigate the effects of carbon emitted
from the automobiles.
It is important to reduce fossil fuel emissions and planting large and

healthy trees to maximize the amount of CO 2 sequestered by urban trees on

roadsides.
In Vadodara city there is need to increase roadside

plantation to retrieve effect of emitted carbon.

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References
1. http://www.ipcc-wg3.de/special-reports/special-report-on-carbon-dioxidecapture-and-storage
2. Michael Markels, Jr and Richard T. Barber (1417 May 2001). "Sequestration
of CO2 by ocean fertilization" (PDF). NETL
3. G Sandhya Kiran and Shah Kinnary (2011),carbon sequestration by urban
Trees on roadsides of Vadodara city,(pdf) international journal of engineering
science and technology (IJEST)
4. http://www.climatetechnology.gov
5. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/sequestration
6. UNFCCC. Clean development mechanism (CDM). CDM project search.
Retrieved April 2008
7. Chris Hendriks , 2007 , UNFCCC Secretariat Financial and Technical Support
Programme Carbon Capture and Storage
8. Miller, H.G., Miller J.D. and Cooper J.M. 1980.Biomass and nutrient
accumulation at differentgrowth rates in thinned plantations
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THANK YOU

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