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Comment on Scientist Discover How to Convert CO2 into Powder That Can Be Stored for Decades

A_A@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Making sodium formate (HCOONa), using electrochemistry :
CO~2~ + H~2~ =>> formic acid
H~2~O =>> H~2~ + 1/2O~2~
NaCl + H~2~O =>> NaOH + 1/2H~2~ + 1/2Cl~2~
formic acid + NaOH =>> sodium formate

I guess they must use something similar to this, probably shortening some steps and using efficient solvent at the right temperature and pressure and with the right electrocutalist.

Well, I still prefer photosynthesis which produces sugar (and +). Plants are self replicating, use free solar energy, captues CO~2~ straight from the air and all this probably at a tiny fraction of the cost.

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AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Plants have a cycle, where sometimes they absorb more CO2 and sometimes they give off more. It’s not permanent storage.

With fossil fuels, we are taking CO2 that gas been sequestered for hundreds of millions of years, and injecting it either directly into the atmosphere, or into plant lifecycle where it is temporarily stored until it goes into the atmosphere. Plants help but are too temporary a solution

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- A_A@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You are mostly right, but what I meant (sorry I was not explicit) was this :
  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog
  
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  - wikibot@lemmy.world [bot] ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
    
    A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens. A baygall is another type of bog found in the forest of the Gulf Coast states in the United States. They are often covered in heath or heather shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink.Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients. A bog usually is found at a freshwater soft spongy ground that is made up of decayed plant matter which is known as peat. They are generally found in cooler northern climates and are formed in poorly draining lake basins. In contrast to fens, they derive most of their water from precipitation rather than mineral-rich ground or surface water. Water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown colour, which comes from dissolved peat tannins. In general, the low fertility and cool climate result in relatively slow plant growth, but decay is even slower due to low oxygen levels in saturated bog soils. Hence, peat accumulates. Large areas of the landscape can be covered many meters deep in peat.Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal, and plant species, and are of high importance for biodiversity, particularly in landscapes that are otherwise settled and farmed.
    
    ^article^ ^|^ ^source^ ^code^
    
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  - Chocrates@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, woody perrenials lock up CO2 for centuries and we have a lot of abandoned mines and whatever holes are leftover from oil drilling that we could theoretically bury plant material in.
    
    Still whatever we do would need to be on unprecedented scales and the World is just not going to do that. At least not until the effects are so acute that it is too late.
    
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    A_A@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, and this (“World is just not going to do that”) is very bad since things will get worse and many people may die (sooner than they would have) in the next 50, 100 years.
    if you look at very long time scale, thousand years and more, things will balance up. (…?) But we don’t really know : there might be big volcanoes or completely new technologies like Geo engineering. Of course the future is (mostly) unknown.
    
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