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Crustaceans would put a dent into it. It's why carbon levels fell from 4000ppm to where they are today. All those shells absorb a lot of carbon over millions o

Crustaceans would put a dent into it. It's why carbon levels fell from 4000ppm to where they are today. All those shells absorb a lot of carbon over millions of years.

desertraven 5y ago
Is there any research on harnessing the same process as crustaceans? Sounds absurd to write, but genuinely curious.
- SturgeonsLaw 5y ago
  Conversion of carbon dioxide to calcium carbonate (one of the materials found in shells) has been researched: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2017.00017/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2017.0001... Using the exact technique that crustaceans use during biomineralisation will be very, very expensive at scale due to the enzymes needed. Current techniques involve using high-pH hydroxide solutions to perform the reactions. Carbon sequestration by pumping concentrated carbon dioxide gas underground would naturally use the high-pH geological environment to run this reaction over time. There are still unanswered questions about pumping CO2 gas underground with regards to leakage - nevermind the fact that when it's pumped into old oil wells, it has the side effect of forcing out more oil which is recovered, sold and burned. Converting CO2 to a solid, stable form like CaCO3 then storing the solids is a nice sequestration option, but like a lot of things in this space, the economics are holding it back more than the technology is.
  - splittingTimes 5y ago
    > the economics are holding it back more than the technology is. Is it not more the missing political will? (and yes, they are related as politics always seeks/ caters to big corps to get their buy-in) In 2008 when the financial system felt some distress, the German finance minister provided 400bn euros over a weekend to Deutsche bank and others. It took politics 2 fregging days to unlock that amount of resources. And it was like no questions asked. And we kept pumping that amount in there on a quarterly basis ever since. I do not need to go into military spending. So for me the earth ecosystem which needs to sustain is as a species is in as much of distress as the financial system was back then. It warrants the same sense of urgency and resource allocation.
  - evv555 5y ago
    The most promising geoengineering proposal I've seen is spreading "green sand" on beaches which is being researched by project vesta[1]. One of the outputs is calcium carbonate which also has the added benefit acting as a pH buffer. 1. https://www.projectvesta.org/ https://www.projectvesta.org/
  - missedthecue 5y ago
    I wonder if you could make building bricks out of this. Cinder blocks, basically. That would be a way to have profitable sequestration.

Crustaceans would put a dent into it. It's why carbon levels fell from 4000ppm to where they are today. All those shells absorb a lot of carbon over millions of years.

desertraven 5y ago

Is there any research on harnessing the same process as crustaceans? Sounds absurd to write, but genuinely curious.

SturgeonsLaw 5y ago
Conversion of carbon dioxide to calcium carbonate (one of the materials found in shells) has been researched: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2017.00017/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2017.0001... Using the exact technique that crustaceans use during biomineralisation will be very, very expensive at scale due to the enzymes needed. Current techniques involve using high-pH hydroxide solutions to perform the reactions. Carbon sequestration by pumping concentrated carbon dioxide gas underground would naturally use the high-pH geological environment to run this reaction over time. There are still unanswered questions about pumping CO2 gas underground with regards to leakage - nevermind the fact that when it's pumped into old oil wells, it has the side effect of forcing out more oil which is recovered, sold and burned. Converting CO2 to a solid, stable form like CaCO3 then storing the solids is a nice sequestration option, but like a lot of things in this space, the economics are holding it back more than the technology is.
- splittingTimes 5y ago
  > the economics are holding it back more than the technology is. Is it not more the missing political will? (and yes, they are related as politics always seeks/ caters to big corps to get their buy-in) In 2008 when the financial system felt some distress, the German finance minister provided 400bn euros over a weekend to Deutsche bank and others. It took politics 2 fregging days to unlock that amount of resources. And it was like no questions asked. And we kept pumping that amount in there on a quarterly basis ever since. I do not need to go into military spending. So for me the earth ecosystem which needs to sustain is as a species is in as much of distress as the financial system was back then. It warrants the same sense of urgency and resource allocation.
- evv555 5y ago
  The most promising geoengineering proposal I've seen is spreading "green sand" on beaches which is being researched by project vesta[1]. One of the outputs is calcium carbonate which also has the added benefit acting as a pH buffer. 1. https://www.projectvesta.org/ https://www.projectvesta.org/
- missedthecue 5y ago
  I wonder if you could make building bricks out of this. Cinder blocks, basically. That would be a way to have profitable sequestration.