CARBON SEQUESTRATION
Md. Shakil Ar Salan
Assistant Professor
Department of Urban & Regional Planning
Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET)
Special Acknowledgement: Faria Afrin Zinia
Assistant Professor (on leave), Dept. of URP, RUET
Types of Green House Gases
Relative
Trace gases Sources
contribution
Air conditioners, foam
Chlorofluorocarbons
15 -25 products, refrigerators,
(CFC)
aerosol spray cans
Landfills, marshes rice
Methane (CH4) 12 - 20
paddies, livestock
Ozone (O3) 8 photochemical reaction
Nitrous oxide (N2O) 5 Burning of fossil fuels
Total 40 - 50
Incomplete burning of
Contribution of
50 - 60 fossil fuels by motor
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
vehicles, industries.
INTRODUCTION
➢ CO2 is one of the main greenhouse gases that is
causing global warming and forcing climate change.
➢ The continued increased in CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere is believed to be accelerated by human
activities such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
➢ One of the approaches to reducing CO2
Concentration in the atmosphere is carbon sequestration.
CARBON SEQUESTRATION
➢ Carbon Sequestration is the placement of CO2 into
a depository in such way that it remains safely and not
released back to the atmosphere.
➢ Sequestration means something that is locked away
for safe keeping. the trapping of a chemical in the
atmosphere or environment and its isolation in a natural or
artificial storage area.
OBJECTIVES
➢ Developing technology to reduce rate of
concentration of greenhouse gases in air.
➢ Reducing pollution in air as well as
improving natural carbon content in soil.
➢ Improvement of soil structure and restoring
degraded soil leading to increase yield in crops.
Carbon dioxide emission in top five countries
Japan, 1.26
Russia, 1.78 China, 8.1
China
The U.S.
India, 1.83
CO2
India
Russia
The U.S., 5.7 Japan
Billion metric tons per Annum
Source of carbon dioxide emission
1. Man made sources
➢ Industries
➢ Transportation
➢ Land use change
➢ soil cultivation
➢ Biomass burning
2. Natural sources
➢ Volcanoes
➢ Wild fires
➢ Decomposition
➢ Respiration
Ways that carbon can be sequestered
1. Geological sequestration : Underground
2. Ocean Sequestration : Deep in ocean
3. Terrestrial Sequestration : In plants and soil
1.Geological sequestration
Geologic Storage involves capturing
anthropogenic CO2 before it enters the atmosphere and
injecting it into underground formations. Once CO2 is
injected deep underground (typically more than 800
meters) it is trapped in pores or spaces in the
rock structure. Impermeable rocks above the storage
zones act as seals to ensure the safe storage of CO2.
2.Ocean sequestration
➢ Carbon is naturally stored in the ocean via two pumps,
solubility and biological and there are analogous man made methods,
direct injection and ocean fertilization, respectively.
➢ At the present time, approximately one third of human
generated emission are estimated to be entering the ocean.
3.Terrestrial Sequestration
The process through which CO2 from the
atmosphere is absorbed naturally through
photosynthesis & stored as carbon in biomass & soils.
Why focus on forests?
Trees and other vegetation
play a crucial / central role
in the global carbon cycle.
The global carbon budget
Carbon budget and importance of forests
Understanding
the global carbon
budget is a good
start, because
this will graph in
detail how much
carbon dioxide
that can be
released to the
atmosphere ...
Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation
• Deforestation is the second largest anthropogenic source of
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere after fossil fuel combustion.
• 11 million hectares of tropical forests are destroyed each year,
deforestation and land-use activities emit about 4.32 GtCO2 (1.2
Pg C) per year - reducing the role as a net carbon sink.
• Deforestation accounts for about 12% of total GHG emissions
from humans, more than the entire global transportation
sector.
• If current trends continue, tropical deforestation will release
about 50% as much carbon into the atmosphere
GHG Mitigation Through FOREST
MANAGEMENT
3 Main Forest Management Approaches:
• Emission avoidance
• Sequestration
• Substitution
Brown 1999, Maness
2009
GHG Mitigation
Brown and
Slide courtesy of Chris Swanston, Maria Janowiak, 1999, Maness
Kristen Schmitt
2009
GHG Mitigation 1: emissions avoidance
Avoid conversion of forests
CO2
• Forest conversion (to
non-forest) and land
development liberate
carbon from biomass and
soil stocks
• Post-deforestation soil
cultivation releases 20 to
30% carbon stored in
soils (Malmsheimer et al
2008)
No Till Agriculture Reduces CO2 emissions
GHG mitigation
sustainable
management of
forests for timber
production would
also maintain carbon
stocks over time and
at the landscape scale
Brown
Slide courtesy of Chris Swanston, Maria Janowiak, and1999, Maness
Kristen Schmitt
2009
GHG Mitigation 2: sequestration
Tropical timber logging emissions can
be substantial…
Ryan et al.
2010
GHG Mitigation 2: sequestration
…But logging emissions are generally a small
proportion of total carbon stock
Ryan et al.
2010
GHG Mitigation 2: sequestration
Forest management actions to increase carbon storage
▪ Reduce harvest impacts
& wastes
▪ Control fire, pests, and
disease
▪ Increase forest growth
▪ Enhance regeneration
▪ Fertilization
▪ Select for
improved/superior
stock
▪ Manage for higher C
stocks in stands
Ryan et al.
2010
GHG Mitigation
Slide from Chris Swanston, Maria Janowiak, and Kristen Schmitt
Brown 1999, Maness 2009
Carbon sources and carbon sinks
❑Carbon source
➢ A forest is considered to be a carbon source if it
releases more carbon than it absorbs.
➢ Anthropogenic activities such as the burning of
fossil fuels have released carbon from its long-term
geologic storage as coal, petroleum and natural gas and
have delivered it to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide
gas.
Carbon sink
The main natural carbon sinks are plants,
the ocean and soil. Plants grab carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere to use in photosynthesis; some of this
carbon is transferred to soil as plants die and
decompose. The oceans are a major carbon storage
system for carbon dioxide. Marine animals also take up
the gas for photosynthesis, while some carbon dioxide
simply dissolves in the seawater.
What is Carbon Credits
A carbon credit is a market term or
generic term for any tradable certificate or
permit representing the right to emit one tonne of
carbon dioxide or the mass of
another greenhouse gas with a carbon dioxide
equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide.
Carbon Footprint/Credit by Country 2022
The Role of Trees & forest in Reducing
Atmospheric Carbon.
➢ Trees it’s the Carbon Storage Experts. One half the
dry weight of wood is carbon. Trees take in CO2 from the air
in the process called photosynthesis.
➢ The tree effectively breaks down the CO2, stores the
carbon in all parts of the tree, and releases the oxygen back
into the atmosphere. Fast growing trees are, in fact, the most
efficient way to sequester atmospheric carbon.
➢ As forests grow, they store carbon in woody tissues
and soil organic matter. The net rate of carbon uptake is
greatest when forests are young, and slows with time. Old
forests can sequester carbon for a long time but provide
essentially no net uptake.
➢ The main strategies for using forests for carbon
sequestration
o Active forest management
o Avoided deforestation
o Forest preservation
o Afforestation
Benefits of Soil Sequestration of Carbon
➢ Improved soil structure
➢ Better water use and storage
➢ Less erosion
➢ Increased soil fertility
➢ Improved biodiversity
➢ Healthier ecology
➢ Improved agricultural performance.
Challenges in soil carbon sequestration
➢ Deforestation
➢ Residue burning
➢Conventional tillage
➢Imbalanced use of fertilizers
➢Reduced inputs of organic matter
Thank You…
