AKA a tree
Yes but it’s wood that you are not allowed to burn or let rot, or the CO₂ gets released again. Basically, cut down trees and store them in oxygen-free water, salt mines, deserts or permafrost areas (or peat bogs, as nature did it over millions of years) where no bacteria/insects will feed on the wood and no humans come to scalp it. There is no way this can be economical, even with today’s carbon credits. Trees are “free” solar carbon capture devices but slow and inefficient, and need to be logged-and-stored continuously to work at all, as there is only a very limited space that we can cover in new forests in the next few decades.
I know they just want to find the best use for waste wood but I think there is too little of it in the first place.
I fail to see where those bricks are “LEGO like” in any way. They are rough bricks, not even sufficiently molded to appear regular.
Good point. Where are the studs? How is the clutch power? Are the tolerances on par with existing Lego bricks?
taking plant waste from timber companies and farmers, drying it, compressing it, and wrapping it “into Lego-like bricks,” and storing it 10 feet underground.
So it’s effectively the astronaut ice cream version permafrost?
Immediately I wonder how much the process of transport -> drying -> compressing, wrapping, transporting, and storing + storage site prep and maintenance eats into savings.
the astronaut ice cream version permafrost?
Yeah, that’s what it sounds like. I do wonder if 10 feet is deep enough to prevent decomposition in the long term. I seems like converting the plant material to biochar would be a more stable form to trap the carbon in.
transport -> drying -> compressing, wrapping, transporting, and storing + storage site prep and maintenance
I think the key aspect here is that all of these steps are easier to decarbonize than the aviation (difficult) and cement production (almost impossible) processes these bricks are intended to offset.
Yeah, I am skeptical. What would be the energy expenditure of actually storing CO2 into those blocks and what about transporting them? I have a feeling this is like carbon capture plants, great for the headlines, but not really a practical solution.
The problem isn’t the inability to make something to do the job, but making it something that you can convince people they’ll make a profit from. Nobody wants to clean up pollution unless you either force them to do it or make it profitable.
