Deeper exploration of 4 possible "DIY scale Carbon Capture solutions"

Let's clean up the air.

Building on the explorative research of our → DIY Carbon Capture Project this collaborative document dives deeper into 4 solutions that might work for DIY.

1. Activism
2. Enhanced Weathering
3. Carbon Gardening/Regenerative Agriculture
4. Biochar

The core idea is to connect number 2, 3 & 4 always to number 1 = activism. Small scale devices that educate people and transport political ideas. Interesting devices for activism and education.

1 Activism

"Keep it in the ground!"

Since the available technologies aren't very powerful and promising we found that the by far most potent DIY carbon capture method is… political activism. Companies have to aggressively restructure their operations and reduce their carbon footprint. Capture it before it goes into the atmosphere – at the chimney or before! This is done best politically.

Here are some questions to drill deeper on carbon activism and also a few first answers.

What are some key problems - single powerful leverages - with carbon production?

Let's find out what political demands could aim at. Problems:

• More than 50 percent of the co2 emission come from only 5 countries in the world with china accounting for more than half of it.
• Instead of sharing new technologies with the developing or third world countries the developed countries are locked up in trade wars and competetion to be on the top.
• A never ending urge of human beings to desire something more.
• Rising population (especially for India)
• Increasing global air travel & transportation.
• Lack of awareness/lack of proper education regarding climate change at grassroot level.
• The world as a high energy demand. Still a lot of this energy is produced by power plants buring coal.
• please add more…

What would be simple - naive - solutions to these problems?

• Put a stop to the rising population more people = more mouths to feed = more exploitation of natural resources.
• We need to curtail our expectations ,put necessity before luxury.
• Go local don't go on buying expensive organic vegetables that have been shipped from all the way from another hemisphere.
• Try to grow your own veggies and other stuff. It doesen't matter if it is as small as a little bit of coriander in a small pot in your kitchen.
• There seem to be technologies you can install at the chimney of a coal power plant filtering out all co2. But this reduces the the capacity of these power plants by 20%. We need a co2-tax that covers this - high enough to make it cheaper to run by 80% capacity and no emissions instad of 100% capacity and full emissions
• please add more …

Tools, techniques and tactics for activism? What is out there?

• Here is a list
• please add more …

What inspiring examples for bottom up activism can we find?

Explanation: Sometimes there are political campaigns that combine small things with larger questions. Some campaigns make it easy to call your representative.

• There are campaigns like "Take 3 for the Sea". What else?
• An art work: HARVEST.
• please add more …

2 DIY Enhanced Weathering

Some rocks catch CO2 on their surface chemically. Enhanced weathering pulverises these stones to maximise their surface area and thus their capacity to bind CO2.

Can we make an enhanced weathering fitness studio? Instead of lifting weights you smash rocks?

In a nutshell: What is Enhanced Weathering? And how does it work?

Enhanced weathering or accelerated weathering refers to geoengineering approaches intended to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by using of specific natural or artificially created minerals which absorb carbon dioxide and transform it in other substances through chemical reactions.

For example, Dunite is one of those materials which is rich in Olivin (Mg2SiO4), when reacted with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) it forms magnesite (2MgCO3) and silica (SiO2). Here the atmospheric carbon dioxide is converted into Magnesite and silica that can be commercialized.

Formula source

Where can I find the rocks needed?

• Dunite is an igneous, plutonic rock, of ultramafic composition found in the lowermost parts of ophiolites, alpine peridotite massifs, and xenoliths may represent the refractory residue left after the extraction of basaltic magmas in the upper mantle. Dunite could be used to sequester CO2 and help mitigate global climate change via accelerated chemical rock weathering. This would involve the mining of dunite rocks in quarries followed by crushing and grinding as to create fine ground rock that would react with the atmospheric carbon dioxide.
• Basalt is the most common volcanic rock type on Earth. The crustal portions of oceanic tectonic plates are composed predominantly of basalt, produced from upwelling mantle below the ocean ridges. Basalt is also the principal volcanic rock in many oceanic islands, including the islands of Hawaiʻi, the Faroe Islands, and Réunion. Basalt is the rock most typical of large igneous provinces. These include continental flood basalts, the most voluminous basalts found on land. Examples of continental flood basalts included the Deccan Traps in India, the Chilcotin Group in British Columbia, Canada, the Paraná Traps in Brazil, the Siberian Traps in Russia, the Karoo flood basalt province in South Africa, and the Columbia River Plateau of Washington and Oregon. Basalt also is common around volcanic arcs, specially those on thin crust. | → List of Companies in Germany that sell Basalt/related products | → Basalt Quarries in Germany
• Large deposits of Wollastonite have been identified in China, Finland, India, Mexico, and the United States. Smaller, but significant, deposits have been identified in Canada, Chile, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan .

If I have some of these rocks, what could be a cool and fun way to crush them? In my DIY enhanced weathering workshop/fitness studio: what tools to use, what techniques, what steps (that also don’t produce more CO2)?

• If you have some of these rocks, you can build a mechanical rock crushing device, which will be powered by humans directly.
• for instance, a piston and a cylinder structure. The rocks are stored in cylinder and a heavy piston(crusher) is lifted up by connecting it to various fitness equipments. when a person performes some activity on the fitness machine, it transfers the force directly to the pully, that lifts the piston up. after a certain height, the piston falls onto the rocks by the gravitational force. Continuing this for few cycles will crush the rocks into fine powder.

What are problems with Enhanced Weathering?

• Respiratory problems in Human Beings (The fine crushed powder of the rocks have silica, that is harmfull for human inhalation.)
• Ocean Acidification (The increase of carbonate weathering and silicate weathering with respect to carbonate precipitation will cause the alkalinity of oceans to increase )
• Land Availability (The land required to spread this crushed rocks is limited/under regional governance. Hence, to sequester the CO2 from the atmosphere, the land availability is an issue.)
• International and Domestic laws opposing Enhanced weathering. more info

Source Link

Why do we not continue to explore DIY Enhanced Weathering?

Why we didn't go for the Enhanced Weathering Fitness Studio?

• Required minerals availability is limited to industries.
• Human respiratory problems because of fine crushed rocks.
• Problems mentioned above associated with enhanced weathering.

3 Regenerative Agriculture & Carbon Gardening

Regenerative agriculture designs biospheres and restores the soil in a way that will capture good amounts of CO2. The small version of it goes by the name of "Carbon Gardening".

How would a carbon gardening tutorial for urban environments look like? And how to connect it creatively to political activities?

In a nutshell. What is rengerative agriculture? And how does it work?

• There are various definitions in the internet about this topic but in general it is aimed at capturing the carbon and keeping it stored in the organic form in the soil.

• Regenerative agriculture is not as complicated as it sounds actually it is very similar to conventional agriculture the only difference is that you need to keep in mind some dont's in your daily practice. The short video above gives an introduction to regenrative agriculture and 5 basic steps that everyone can follow with little or no experience.

• A good introduction and overview can be found here (mirror.pdf)

What are the key barriers for large scale regenerative agriculture?

• Regenerative agriculture is large scale agricultural practice and when we try to scale something to large scale there are some barriers which we need to overcome, although research is still underway in the field to make it more efficient but there are some most common barriers which can be found in this image below

Image | (mirror) | Image source and more literature

In a nutshell. What is Carbon Gardening? How does it work?

• Carbon gardening is basically turning your backyard into a carbon sink that can help maximize carbon sequestration.Carbon gardeing is similar to conventional gardening the only difference is the choice of plants or shrubs to grow. What we can do right now is explained in very simple terms in this article (mirror.pdf)

How is it different from regenerative agriculture?

• Carbon gardening is very much similar to regenerative agriculture the only difference is as opposed to growing crops the focus is to grow more plants and shrubs that are visually pleasing and only a small portion of vegetables if you wish for some home grown organic veggies.

Plants & Carbon Gardening? What plants to grow? And what to think about?

• There is no specific rules as to which plants you can grow for practicing carbon gardening, all plants have photosynthesis but some of them are better or absorb more carbon di oxide than others.There are numerous lists available on the internet where you can easily find which plants to grow according to type of zones, weather, type of soil, etc.

• Here are some of them to get you started. (mirror.pdf)

Should I focus on fast growing plants? And what are fast growing plants?

• I think instead on focusing on fast growth one should focus on species that are longer living like trees and shrubs because the lnoger they live the longer they can store the carbon in their trunks or in their roots which is better than growing something quickly and then cutting it down for making furniture because speaking from the perspective of an avergae man who is it not plannig to sell furniture for a living and does not has little time on hands it is better to stick with long lasting trees.

Is there a minimum amount of space I need for carbon gardening? Can I do it in flowerpots?

• No there is no minimum space requirement it can be as small as numerous number of small plants indoors and as complicated as a small ecosystem in your backyard with 10 different types of plants. It all depends on how much time and effort are you willinf to put in
• You can always start small it does not matter if you put 5 small flower pots in your house doesent matter if it is very small amount but you have to start,the more you learn about it the more informed decision you can make about it in the future.
• Here is the link for absolute beginers to how to grow some vegetables and plants for yourself and your family.

What community actions, events and resources could be imagined that support small scale regenerative agriculture?

• Self awareness is one of the first and foremost things that people can do, people are aware of the climate change but turn a blind eye thinking what can one individual do about it.
• Explain to the people how regenerative agriculture/ carbon gardnening is beneficial for them and the environment.

How could municipalities & cities support carbon gardening/regenerative agriculture for example on public greens and so on.

• Let people have some experience at events meaning organize an event once a quarter where the municipalties along with the people organize tree plantation drives, wherin the local people get some hands on experience which gives them motivation and make them realise it is not difficult to do it in their garden.
• Municipalties should lead at the front of this campaign by seting up carbon gardens conssisting of trees and plants that are mainly suitable to the local weather conditions for carbon capture.
• Provide some kind of benefits (if possible monetary benefit) to individuals / household capturing specific amount of carbon they produce.

If I want to start right away with it? What are the 3 key articles/resources to look at with practical tips?

• Although there are numerous articles and resources available in this topic on the internet but sometimes all this information can be confusing here is an articles that give some basic do's and don'ts if you are not aware about the concept.
• Here are some of the DIY projects that you can build in your backyards it has simple to all the complex builds to choose depending on an individuals motivation level.

4 Biochar

In a nutshell. What is biochar? How to make it? How does it help with carbon capturing?

• Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (also called biomass) in a controlled process called pyrolysis.

• Pyrolysis takes place in absence of oxygen at a specific temperature range (200 to 800 degrees). When biomass is burned in absence of oxygen there is no combustion so this biomass gets converted into 3 diferent forms (liqid-bio oil,solid -biochar and gaseous-syngas). Under specific conditions bio oil yields of 60 to 70 wt% can be achived from a biomass feedstock, 15 to 25 wt% of Biochar and 10 to 15 % 0f syngas.

• Biochar production is a carbon-negative process, which means that it actually reduces CO2 in the atmosphere. In the process of making biochar, the unstable carbon in decaying plant material is converted into a stable form of carbon that is then stored in the biochar.

What are the key problems to think about when aiming at DIY biochar?

• Availability of biomass with desired moisture content.
• Enough space to perform the process and not cause problems to the neighbourhood.
• Performing the process without adequate knowledge may lead to more damage to the atmosphere (syngass release from improper combustion).
• Not puttingout the fire in right time, might turn the biochar into ash.
• Even after making the biochar successfully, the addition of nutrients according to the soil type is a must to improve the soil quality.

How to make biochar small scale? (Interesting looking tutorials)

• How to make Biochar at a small scale.

Why is biochar nothing to recommed for people living in cities?

• First and foremost reason not to recommend biochar production for people living in the cities is, the availability of biomass material to pyrolyse.
• The second being the space availability to perform the mechanism.
• Further, the complaints from the neighbourhood while performing the operations.
• Finally, the time needed to make biochar is varying upon numerous factors like, biomass type, quality, quantity, pyrolysis techniques, etc.

How could biochar technologies make sense in urban environments or close to it?

• Small scale plants that collect biomass from urban households and convert it into biochar can be an idea to look into.
• Seling biochar to biomass donors for a cheaper price.
• Promoting the dumping of biomass at allocated collection points, which can be later used by small scale biochar producers.
• Promoting the use of biochar in urban areas, to improve their garden quality and quantity, which inturn helps to sequester more atmospheric CO2.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License authorded by Dhruv Pande and Prahalad Aadepu during their internship at Mifactori (guidence by Lars Zimmermann)