H. Murnen
Graphyte, Inc.,
United States
Keywords: carbon removal, biomass
Summary:
It is well understood that increasing levels of Carbon Dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere are driving climate change, resulting in increasing global temperatures and resulting severe weather impacts. As a society, we must rapidly decarbonize industrial processes and power production. However, even if undertaken with great urgency and scale, decarbonization will not be enough to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. The IPCC has stated that we will also need between 5 and 16 Gt of carbon removal by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5C. In this talk, I will share a method for carbon removal that is scalable, affordable and durable for over 1000 years. Carbon Casting leverages the natural capture of CO2 through photosynthesis by plants. The resulting biomass would normally return that carbon into the atmosphere through decomposition. Instead, Carbon Casting halts decomposition through drying and the cessation of microbial activity and the subsequent encapsulation of the inert biomass with a water impermeable barrier. The encapsulated biomass is then placed into a permanent storage chamber where it can be directly monitored for any signs of re-emission.