The goal of achieving the boundary of 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius is far away from the world's reach. If it has to be accomplished, we will have to be carbon neutral by 2050 and then carbon-negative. The negative stats can only e gained when the world's capacity to trap carbon from the atmosphere drastically increases. Further, it needs to be stored somewhere where it will not leak out. Carbon capture and storage projects already absorb tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 every year. However, reducing emissions will necessitate the capture of many billions of metric tonnes more. People today emit approximately 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, primarily via fossil fuels.
There is a need for innovative ideas in carbon storage to fund paradigm-shifting research and innovation as it will help confront the climate issue. Looking at the scenario, a team has recently attempted to bring together geologists, chemists, and biologists. The findings could advance the Carbon Footprint Management Market as it is aimed permanently store carbon underground feasible under various geological settings. This entails figuring out how to accelerate the process by which carbon pushed underground is converted into rock or mineralized.
Building a carbon-negative industry involves enormous technological, economic, environmental, and political hurdles. For one thing, conventional carbon-capture-and-storage systems are expensive and energy-intensive, and they are "hellishly complicated,". Much of the current carbon capture effort is focused on more concentrated sources, such as coal or gas-burning power plants.
It's also challenging to discover geologically adequate storage locations. As carbon needs to be trapped in airtight reservoirs or converted to stone in order to remain in the ground after it has been captured.
Iceland is one of the greatest carbon capture and storage (CCS), with several CCS projects already up and operating. The island's volcanic geology aids in the mining process by allowing carbon pushed underground to interact with basalt rock at high temperatures. In that optimum situation, 95 per cent of carbon injected underground gets mineralized in just two years – a geological flash.
However, Iceland's geology is unique. Deeper drilling is required elsewhere to access acceptable rocks at optimum temperatures, which adds costs to already expensive projects. Furthermore, there is a lack of understanding of how different elements influence the rate of mineralization.
Researchers need a business on the magnitude of the current oil industry that will do nothing but pump CO2 into storage reservoirs. The Earth is vast. The relatively accessible locations around the continents contain hundreds of thousands of gigatonnes of carbon. That is orders of magnitude more than we need to reinvest.