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Storing Liquid CO2 in the Oceans?
Roland Piquepaille writes "One of the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to capture carbon dioxide at its source, when it is emitted from power plants for example, and to store it in other places, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs or even the ocean after liquefaction. But, according to Youxue Zhang, a professor at the University of Michigan, there are pitfalls in this last plan. If the carbon dioxide is not injected deep enough, it can come back to the surface and return to the atmosphere, which is obviously not the desired goal. But, even worse, the liquid-to-gas conversion could happen too suddenly, which could cause a potentially dangerous eruption. So Zhang has developed a model which shows that liquid CO2 would have to be injected to a depth of between 800 and 3,000 meters to keep it from escaping from the ocean."
Wouldn't it be easier, safer, and more intelligent to just protect and encourage coral growth? Coral pretty much does everything we need, if we could just give it an environment to 'do its thing' none of this would be a problem. The entire strategem is rife with deadly pitfalls and screams of huge opportunity to burn energy that produces more CO and CO2. Think about it.
kulakovich
Considering that the vast majority of oxygen production takes place near the surface of the ocean, I would be rather worried about ocean life thriving unexpectedly on what could only be called a fresh breath of CO2.
Or you could just dump some iron into the ocean to supercharge plankton growth. Probably cheaper, easier and a tad more of a natural way to do it.
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The idea of dissolving CO2 in oceans is incredibly reckless. Look at the consequences of degassing of a small lake and you can dismiss this silliness out of hand. The earth's natural mechanism for CO2 removal is limestone formation. Perhaps would be wiser to imitate that.
an ill wind that blows no good