Carbon Sequestration is a process through, which the carbon dioxide is extracted or apprehended from atmosphere or anthropogenic sources (large stationary industrial sources) of CO2 and stocked for a long term to be utilized for later use.
Sources CO2
The sources of CO2 comprises of large sites made by human beings such as power plants, coal and gas plants, refineries, big industrial sources like that of cement production, ethanol and natural gas processing plants.
The Process of Carbon Sequestration
The process envelops mainly three steps. In the first step CO2 is captured from the sources mentioned earlier in this passage. In the second step this accumulated CO2 is compressed and transported through pipelines, trains trucks and ships. And, finally, in the third step the CO2 is stocked in deep underground rock layers in earth’s surface for long term storage.
Types of Carbon Sequestration
There are chiefly two kinds of carbon sequestration: Terristorial and Geological sequestration.
In Terristorial Sequestration plants are used to capture CO2 in their carbon content to the soil that makes the soil more fertile. Thus it can be assessed that Terristorial Sequestration essentially uses land management techniques to facilitate reservation of more carbon in plants and soil for a longer period of time naturally.
In Geological Sequestration the apprehended carbon dioxide is stored underground by injecting it into solid, porus rock formations such as sandstone, basalt, dolomite, shale, saline formations and deep coal seams. These layers lie under the impenetrable and solid, non-porus layers of rocks in order to prevent its leakage upwards. This injection is administered only after conducting proper site characterization so as to ensure its safe stocking without any leakage.
This captured and stocked CO2 through the process of Carbon Sequestration is used in various industries such as beverage industry, food manufacturing, paper and pulp industries, fabrication of metals and oil recovery.
The concept of Carbon Sequestration is gaining great importance, particularly at present, and will continue to acquire even more significance in future for it can assist in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from cement productions and natural gas processing units to a great extent. So we cannot take the risk of overlooking this technique if we are serious in our efforts to combat the alarming phenomenon of climate change.