Water and Carbon 4 Water, Carbon, Climate and Life on Earth

Climate Change Mitigation:

Carbon Capture and Sequestration:

• It can remove up to 90% of the CO2 emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels
• Capturing the CO2:
  • Allows CO2 to be separated from other gases
  • Methods include: pre-combustion capture, post combustion capture and oxy-fuel combustion
• Transporting the CO2:
  • By pipeline or ship to storage location
  • Millions of tonnes are already being transported annually for commercial use by road tankers, ships and pipelines
• Securely storing the CO2:
  • Store it underground in depleted oil ad gas fields, deep saline aquifers several km below the surface or the deep ocean
• Could be used to extract more oil and gas out of the reservoirs - as the gas and oil is pumped in it forces oil and gas out of the reservoir
  • Partly pays for capturing
  • Enhances the origin of the problem
• CO2 could be stored in the oceans
  • Causes ocean acidification
• Boundary Dam
  • 110-megawatt coal power and CCS plant in Saskatchewan
  • Captures 90% of the CO2 produced
  • CO2 is pumped 66km to Weyburn Oil Unit and injected into an oil-bearing formation 1,500m below
  • This forces more oil out - enhanced oil recovery
  • Cost $800million to build
  • Uses 21% of the energy produced to compress the CO2 into liquid for burial

Changing Rural Land Use:

• Grasslands
  • CO2 sequestered into the soil
  • 810million tonnes could be sequestered by 2030
  • Avoid overstocking of grazing animals
  • Adding manures and fertilisers to soils to increase plant productivity
  • Revegetation increases productivity and litter adding to the soil organic carbon
  • Irrigation to improve plant productivity
• Croplands
  • Used to increase soil organic carbon 
  • Mulching reduces the carbon losses in the system
  • Reduced or no tillage to avoid increased acceleration of decomposition 
  • Use of animal manures to increase plant productivity
  • Rotation of cash crops to increase the biomass returned to the soil
  • Improved crop variety to increase productivity
• Forested lands and tree crops
  • Storing large stocks of CO2 above and below ground
  • Protection
  • Reforesting
  • Trees in cropland (silviculture)

Improved Aviation Practices:

• In 2013 705million tonnes of CO2 were produced by the aviation industry
• Potential reductions:
  • Towing aircrafts while on the ground
  • Avoid circling, stacking, queueing etc.
  • Adopt fuel efficient routes
  • 100% occupancy of seats
  • Cruising at lower speeds
  • Matching an aircraft to the route
  • Increase engine efficiency
  • Increased use of biofuels
  • Improved aerodynamics
  • Reduced weigh of aircraft
  • Carbon capture within engines
  • Maximising the number of seats per aaircraft

Tropical Evergreen Rainforests:

• Located 10° north and 10° south of the equator

The Climate:

• No seasons
• Hot and wet all year
• Temperatures range from 24℃ to 28℃
  • Because the sun is high in the sky all year round
  • Lower than expected due to the cloud cover
• Trade winds from the northeast and southeast comes together in the inter-tropical convergence zone. This creates low pressure zones which leads to convectional rainfall
• Over 2,000mm of rainfall a year
• Daily weather pattern:
  • morning: clear skies
  • midday: high evapotranspiration as sun neats up the humid forest and causes a low pressure system
  • early afternoon: the cumulonimbus form 
  • Middle…