StoppingClimateChange.com      Summary Page            Directory   This website is about building wood-burning power plants and nuclear water desalination to roll back Climate Change.  Prolog


 

1, Decarbonization is about ending the production of adding additional Climate Changing carbon dioxide (CO2) to the air.
2, BECCS is a technology we can use to restore air to the way it has been since time immemorial by removing CO2 from the air.
BECCS stands for Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage.
This website is about BECCS. 


A Practical Path for Removing All Climate Changing CO2 From The Air

The shock of the pandemic crisis could be just what is needed to consign less effective climate policies to the trash bin.

Stopping Climate Change might be quicker, easier, and cheaper than we think.    Please read: Prolog

Once the Coronavirus Pandemic has passed, we can employ existing and new tools to achieve the 2050 1.5 ppm CO2 limit necessary to avoid disaster.

OLD EXISTING BECCS TOOLS: 1, Trees, 2, Saws, 3, The Sabatier chemical reaction (1897) to turn trees into synthetic natural gas.  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction )
NEW TOOLS: 1, Natural gas-burning, liquid CO2 producing, Allam power plants, 2, CO2 storage vault wells, 3, CarbFix CO2-to-Limestone chemistry to lock liquid CO2 deep underground forever. 

Even if we stopped emitting all CO2 tomorrow, the world would continue getting warmer because the excess CO2 will go away very slowly.  Some will remain in the air for a thousand years.
The more CO2 we remove from the air now, the less total Global Warming we will have and the less CO2 we will eventually have to remove after we end CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.
Old growth forests that have already absorbed and stored massive amounts of climate-warming carbon dioxide from the air. Harvesting and then reforesting trees will then pull another slug of CO2 from the air.

"The low-end IPCC estimate requires pulling 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the air by 2100, roughly double the amount that humanity produces in a year.

([3,000 Allam power plants running for 50 years.] At 3 tons of CO2 per tree, 100 billion tons CO2 is about 33 billion trees. The world has about 3 trillion trees. A trillion is 1,000 billion. 3,000 billion trees minus 33 billion = 2,967 billion trees remaining.)

The high-end estimate is 1,000 billion tons, effectively forcing humanity to undo 20 years of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Either way, it means that carbon removal is no longer just a potential strategy for fighting climate change.
Given the very high likelihood we will overshoot our emissions reduction targets, carbon removal is now an absolute necessity for avoiding worst-case scenarios."
From:  https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/10/24/18001538/climate-change-co2-removal-negative-emissions-cdr-carbon-dioxide   See also:  https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2010/12/common-climate-misconceptions-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide/ 

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Old tree CO2 could be stored underground in CCS Vaults
instead of letting their CO2 decay back into the air as Climate Change.
 

                
          

As an introduction to this website, your author is using the abstract portion of the scientific paper:  "Carbon sequestration via wood burial" by Ning Zeng.  

"To mitigate global climate change, a portfolio of strategies will be needed to keep the atmospheric CO2 concentration below a dangerous level.
Here a carbon sequestration strategy is proposed in which certain dead or live trees are harvested via collection or selective cutting, then buried in trenches or stowed away in above-ground shelters.
The largely anaerobic condition under a sufficiently thick layer of soil will prevent the decomposition of the buried wood.
Because a large flux of CO2 is constantly being assimilated into the world's forests via photosynthesis, cutting off its return pathway to the atmosphere forms an effective carbon sink.

It is estimated that a sustainable long-term carbon sequestration potential for wood burial is 10 ± 5 GtC y-1, and currently about 65 GtC is on the world's forest floors in the form of coarse woody debris suitable for burial.
The potential is largest in tropical forests (4.2 GtC y-1), followed by temperate (3.7 GtC y-1) and boreal forests (2.1 GtC y-1).
Burying wood has other benefits including minimizing CO2 source from deforestation, extending the lifetime of reforestation carbon sink, and reducing fire danger.
There are possible environmental impacts such as nutrient lock-up which nevertheless appears manageable, but other concerns and factors will likely set a limit so that only part of the full potential can be realized.

Based on data from North American logging industry, the cost for wood burial is estimated to be $14/tCO2($50/tC), far lower than the typical cost for power plant CO2 capture with geological storage.
The cost for carbon sequestration with wood burial is low because CO2 is removed from the atmosphere by the natural process of photosynthesis at little cost.
The technique is low tech, distributed, easy to monitor, safe, and reversible, thus an attractive option for large-scale implementation in a world-wide carbon market."



The above article abstract is available from: http://www.cbmjournal.com/content/3/1/1 © 2008 Zeng; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.  Read the whole paper. It's short and well-written.  2.220.01.pdf   
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ALSO: https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-build-forests/ 

 


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Using BECCS to store old tree CO2 underground forever in Carbon Capture and Storage Vaults
 The CO2 would be stored underground forever (in CCS Vaults) as CarbFix limestone, eventually ending Climate Change.  https://www.carbfix.com/ 
 

                     
  

   
 A New Technology: A new kind of oxy-combustion engine, the Allam Cycle, offers advanced BECCS technology for removing Climate Change from the air.
 


Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), can make large amounts of electricity from trees while also capturing and storing the large amount of CO2 that the trees had earlier removed from the air while growing.

 


 

 

 

 

 

The Allam Cycle power plant's introductory video:  https://netpower.com/the-cycle/ 
What this website is suggesting: A wood-powered Allam Cycle power plant would make the most effective BECCS power plant in the world.


Using Allam Cycle BECCS to repair our air
   

The Allam Cycle is real.  A 30 megaWatt pilot plant (image above, right, click) has been running in La Port, Texas, for two years.
TOSHIBA will begin manufacturing a new kind of large, non-nuclear, city-size 300 megaWatt power plant in 2021. It can do BECCS much better than other proposed BECCS power plants.
Called the Allam Cycle power plant, it captures ALL it's emissions so it has no smokestack.
Since it's non-nuclear, it shouldn't need any special technical staff or licensing beyond the Class VI CO2 disposal well.   https://www.epa.gov/uic/class-vi-wells-used-geologic-sequestration-co2
Allam Cycle BECCS can remove more climate changing CO2 from the air per gigaWatt of capacity than any other electricity generating technology.
 

Global BECCS, done big enough and long enough, plus global decarbonization, is all we need to do to end Climate Change forever.

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In his scientific paper, Dan F. Smith, et al*, rates the 300 megaWatt Toshiba Allam Cycle power plant at 772,200 tons of CO2 sequestered per year.
That means 45,325 Allam Cycle plants could remove a year's worth of CO2 emissions (35 Billion tons) from the air in a year. 
This shows how big a job repairing the air is going to be.
But not impossible. The world currently has well over 50,000 running fossil-fuel power plants.
This many wood-burning Allam Cycle power plants would effectively stop today's Climate Change in it's tracks.
$30 per ton CO2 sequestered, $50 per megaWatt-hour seems to be the ballpark money available over a 60-year plant life.  https://www.equinor.com/en/what-we-do/h2hsaltend.html 

Bottom Line: The wood of trees must be kept from returning their CO2 back to the air when they die. With CarbFix sequestration, CO2 is locked deep underground forever. It cannot be recovered.

Dan F. Smith's scientific paper: "Process and Carbon Footprint Analyses of the Allam Cycle Power Plant Integrated with an Air Separation Unit" 15/Sep/2019  appeared in 'Clean Technologies' Journal. 
Google fetched a free pdf copy for your author at:  https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/1/1/22 
Engineers should have a copy in hand because the paper will give them detailed insight into how the Allam thermodynamic cycle both functions and performs.   2.804.35 

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An Advanced Allam Cycle Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) Facility

About 20% Of The World's Energy Is Used To Make Electricity.  Using Shredded Wood Pellets To Make The World's Electricity Will Repair The Air.
 (Below) This is how a wood-powered Allam Cycle BECCS power plant could make electricity while repairing the air.  
It would sequester 3/4 million tons of CO2 each year ($75,000,000 @ $100/ton) while producing 2,628,000 megaWatt-hours ($131,400,000 @ $50 mW-h) of electricity each year.


Detail Pages (In Progress):  0 Discussion & Strategy 1 Repairing the Air 2 Repairing the Water 3 Engineering 4 Biomass Preparation 5 Gasifier 6 Syngas Cleanup 7 Methanator 8 Allam Power Plant 9 CO2 Sequestration Vault
Air's CO2, captured by trees as they grow, can be permanently recovered and locked underground forever by BECCS power plants. If trees decay on the forest floor, their CO2 returns to the air to make Climate Change worse.
The two huge Plasma Torch towers (one shown) are currently being built and sold in Asia for converting city garbage (Metropolitan Solid Waste - MSW) into low quality synthesis gas to power dual electricity generating turbines.
A key critical feature of this power plant site is that it is located directly over an adequate CO2 geological sequestration site for fastest and least expensive CarbFix CO2 sequestration.

Bottom Line: The chemistry to make synthetic natural gas out of wood already exists at small plant size.
This website is suggesting leading chemical engineering and construction companies look into providing wood-gasification systems for large Allam Cycle power plants on a global basis.

  
Click to enlarge a more detailed image of the suggested 1 Allam-year BECCS energy park.

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Carbon Capture and Storage Vaults:
U.S. and Global Deep Underground BECCS Negative CO2 Storage Zones

The United States' Carbon Capture and Storage Situation:
 "The United States has the technological potential to offset roughly only a decade’s worth of its current CO2 emissions through biological sequestration (i.e., planting trees, etc.,) but a few hundred years’ worth of emissions through carbon dioxide capture and sequestration." - from Congressional Budget Office "The Potential for Carbon Sequestration in the United States, 2007" - Summary, page 2. 

See CarbFix: CO2 Locked in the ground forever. Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zDZmIDbDO0   (Skip the ad someone inserted in front of the video.)
If water is added to the liquid CO2 as it is pumped into the ground, the CO2 will turn into limestone after a few years. This locks the CO2 underground forever.

               
Maps Showing various UNDERGROUND CARBON CAPTURE STORAGE STRATA LOCATIONS 
See:  "Geospatial analysis of near-term potential for carbon-negative bioenergy in the United States" by Ejeong Baik, et al.  https://www.pnas.org/content/115/13/3290  (pdf)
Locations without carbon disposal will have to rely on renewables - wind, solar - for their electricity.

Bottom Line: BECCS Power Plants for rolling back Climate Change can be located over CO2 storage zones almost anywhere.

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Stopping Climate Change might be quicker, easier, and cheaper than we think.
The electrical grid enables BECCS electricity plants to be located over CO2 disposal strata distant from population centers.


30,000 illuminated cities could mean more than 30,000 nearby coal power plants. 20,000 Allam BECCS power plants could, over 50 to 200 years, roll Climate Change back to normal or less.
 We could build BECCS power plants next to existing unneeded coal power plants on their property to roll back Climate Change at minimal delay and cost.
 

Legacy coal power plants are already connected to electrical grids.        
Nearly 300 coal-fired power plants have been "retired" since 2010 in the U.S. alone, according to the Sierra Club.

 

Bottom Line: Stopping, then rolling back, Climate Change might be quicker, easier, and cheaper than we think.

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BACKGROUND: Climate Change is caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Burning fossil fuels produces the 'greenhouse' gas carbon dioxide (CO2).  Scientists say about 400 billion tons of excess carbon dioxide gas (CO2) has accumulated in the air since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (1800) and is acting like a blanket preventing Planet Earth from being properly cooled from the Sun's heat by the cold of deep space.
Trees grow by removing CO2 from the air and using that CO2 to make wood. About half the weight of wood is CO2, so 800 billion tons of trees would contain 400 billion tons of CO2. Since an average tree weighs about 2 tons, that would be about 400 billion trees or about 12% of Planet Earth's 3 trillion trees. (A trillion is a thousand billion, a billion is a thousand million, a million is a thousand thousands.) Or, about 11 million trees per day for 100 years.
This 400 billion tons of CO2 could be removed from the air. A prerequisite would be the decarbonization (i.e., windmills, nuclear, carbon-neutral fuels, etc.) of all energy systems to prevent CO2 re-contamination of the air.
First, the existing trees would be thermochemically converted to synthetic natural gas, burned to make electricity, then the CO2 that was unlocked from the wood stored (sequestered) underground forever using the CO2 additive "CarbFix"  https://www.carbfix.com/  to initiate stopping Climate Change. The ground can safely store many times this amount. If CarbFix is not used, the old CO2 may eventually find a way to return to the air.
Then the process of replanting and regrowing the same number of trees would remove the excess CO2 that is currently in the air now, thereby repairing the air by restoring it what it was before Climate Change. In practice, this process of sequestering old wood and growing new wood would take place concurrently over perhaps 100 years.

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"Technological fixes are often far simpler, and therefore cheaper, than the doomsayers could have imagined." -  ( From Prologue )

One objective of this website is to communicate that - in some ways - the current Climate Change crisis resembles the world's early 1900s horseshit crisis described in this website's 'Prologue' story.
You can't see or smell them, but your car's 150+ horsepower engine is capable of making appallingly large amounts of CO2 turds when you stand on the accelerator.

Here’s an analogy that Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who helped compile some of the climate research data for the World Bank, likes to use:
"Take the human body. If your temperature rises 2°C, you have a significant fever. If it rises 4°C or 6°C you can die. It’s not a linear change."

 

 

The 547-page report, the most ambitious Democratic climate plan to date, calls for setting a price on carbon dioxide pollution, eliminating pollution from cars by 2035 and from power plants by 2040 and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
It also aims to make environmental justice a focus and says marginalized communities that often suffer the worst effects of climate change and pollution must get "the tangible benefits" of climate action. - - - July 1, 2020

2.701.22 Why the Color of a Colorless Gas Matters for Green Energy.doc