FEATURES
INTERGOV ERNMENTA L PA NEL ON
climate change
CLIMATE CHANGE 2013
The Physical Science Basis
WG I
WORKING GROUP I CONTRIBUTION TO THE
FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORT OF THE
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE
21
Carbon Capture and Storage).
This technology consists in massive trees
cultivation and other biomasses, then
burning them to generate electricity and
finally capture the released CO2 and store it
underground therefore reducing, in theory,
the gases levels in the atmosphere.
But the scale of this approach is limited by
the practice: it is very difficult to generate
large amounts of electricity using trees
without causing a potential de-forestation
effects, since the energy requirement is
so high that the new planting would not
enough to satisfy the energy demand,
hence the fear that this strategy could
decrease the existing forests.
For these reasons, the IPCC report consider
this approach uncertain and risky.
Another interesting system aimed to captur
carbon dioxide and store it underground
indicated by a research reported by
magazine Science: a research group at
University College of London and Iceland
University, led by Sigurdur Gislason, is
trying to implement a project which rocks
absorb the great mass of CO2 produced
by man. The researchers showed when
carbon dioxide is pumped out with the
high pressure water into certain types of
underground formations there’s a reaction
with the surrounding rocks that would trap
CO2 for hundreds of years, according to a
first very optimistic estimation.
The research groups pursuing this idea,
they added carbon dioxide to water spray
and then pumped it underground.
The experiment was conducted near a
large geothermal camp in Iceland: results
were the carbon dioxide dissolves quickly
in water and at this stage no longer has a
tendency to rise to the surface.
More in detail, the CO2 loaded water reacts
with basalt, a type of volcanic rock, and
researchers have shown that, within a year,
80% of the CO2 reacted with magnesium,
calcium and iron carbonate content in