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Turning wood into charcoal would be a way. That doesn't decay easily when burried.

by _ph_ 3y ago

Nifty3929 3y ago
I don't know if you were intentionally joking or not - but I find the though of putting coal back into the ground hilarious! Like, maybe that's how it got there in the first place. Our ancestors cut down trees for fuel, caused global warming and came up with this great idea to sequester it as coal under the ground. They save the environment, but end up living in caves and huts. 6000 years later we come around, dig up the coal, burn it, cause global warming, and then... decide to sequester it back in the ground as coal again. EDIT: It remains to be seen whether we will also end up living in caves and huts (again)
- tastyfreeze 3y ago
  Charcoal and coal are not the same. Charcoal has an immense surface area per unit volume (950 to 2000 m2/g) and is pure carbon. That surface area makes charcoal great at absorption. Populating charcoal with nutrients and life then adding it to soil permanently improves soil fertility by increasing the nutrient holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, and available microorganism living space. Gardeners call inoculated charcoal biochar. Historical examples of human created charcoal rich soils are terra preta and African dark earths. Terra preta and African dark earths have highly elevated levels of black carbon (up to 9%) and have remained fertile for at least 400 years. We don't know if these charcoal enriched soils were intentionally made or if they were just community middens. But, these charcoal enriched soils are undoubtedly more fertile than the surrounding soil. Skill Cult has a great playlist about charcoal and how it can be used in agriculture. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL60FnyEY-eJAfBgRAHKXjsNiUwqD1GTFK https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL60FnyEY-eJAfBgRAHKXj...
- _ph_ 3y ago
  Both :) It is somewhat funny but might actually work. Plants are great at absorbing CO2, but that is very transient in the nature. One certainly could burry whole logs underground and perhaps it is possible to prevent decay from releasing the captured carbon again as CO2. Charcoal is pure carbon and less likely to decay and much easier to store. And we have the production facilities for that. One would of course have to compare the several competing mechanisms which actually works best.

Turning wood into charcoal would be a way. That doesn't decay easily when burried.

by _ph_ 3y ago

Turning wood into charcoal would be a way. That doesn't decay easily when burried.

I don't know if you were intentionally joking or not - but I find the though of putting coal back into the ground hilarious! Like, maybe that's how it got there in the first place. Our ancestors cut down trees for fuel, caused global warming and came up with this great idea to sequester it as coal under the ground. They save the environment, but end up living in caves and huts. 6000 years later we come around, dig up the coal, burn it, cause global warming, and then... decide to sequester it back in the ground as coal again. EDIT: It remains to be seen whether we will also end up living in caves and huts (again)

tastyfreeze 3y ago
Charcoal and coal are not the same. Charcoal has an immense surface area per unit volume (950 to 2000 m2/g) and is pure carbon. That surface area makes charcoal great at absorption. Populating charcoal with nutrients and life then adding it to soil permanently improves soil fertility by increasing the nutrient holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, and available microorganism living space. Gardeners call inoculated charcoal biochar. Historical examples of human created charcoal rich soils are terra preta and African dark earths. Terra preta and African dark earths have highly elevated levels of black carbon (up to 9%) and have remained fertile for at least 400 years. We don't know if these charcoal enriched soils were intentionally made or if they were just community middens. But, these charcoal enriched soils are undoubtedly more fertile than the surrounding soil. Skill Cult has a great playlist about charcoal and how it can be used in agriculture. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL60FnyEY-eJAfBgRAHKXjsNiUwqD1GTFK https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL60FnyEY-eJAfBgRAHKXj...
_ph_ 3y ago
Both :) It is somewhat funny but might actually work. Plants are great at absorbing CO2, but that is very transient in the nature. One certainly could burry whole logs underground and perhaps it is possible to prevent decay from releasing the captured carbon again as CO2. Charcoal is pure carbon and less likely to decay and much easier to store. And we have the production facilities for that. One would of course have to compare the several competing mechanisms which actually works best.