Amidst the global push to combat climate change, companies like Rewind in Israel are venturing into unconventional methods to draw carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it on the ocean floor. The innovative approach involves sinking waste wood to the sea floor, leveraging the low-oxygen environment of the Black Sea, akin to the preservation of ancient shipwrecks. This simple yet effective method uses tugboats, barges, and woody waste from forestry and agriculture, offering a potential solution to limit global warming.
Compared to other ocean-based carbon capture strategies, such as growing and sinking seaweed or phytoplankton, burying terrestrial biomass at sea presents distinct advantages. The plant material is grown on land, reducing the risk of robbing nutrients from the surrounding water and disrupting marine ecology. Additionally, the existing infrastructure for terrestrial biomass, including industrial agriculture and forestry, offers a logistical advantage over marine farming.
While the approach provides a promising tool in the fight against climate change, it may fall short of the substantial carbon capture needed to meet global targets. To limit warming below 2°C, approximately 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide must be captured and stored annually by midcentury. Burying terrestrial biomass at sea, while effective in specific locations, may not be scalable enough to address the full scope of the problem.
Companies like Rewind are capitalizing on carbon credit markets, attracting investors interested in selling credits for the carbon removed from the atmosphere. The Black Sea, with its low-oxygen environment at the bottom, provides an ideal location for carbon burial. Investors, including carbon credit marketplace Supercritical, are backing these initiatives, recognizing the potential of sinking biomass to contribute to carbon sequestration.
However, experts caution that while terrestrial biomass burial offers a valuable piece of the carbon capture puzzle, it should be viewed as one tool among many. The urgency of addressing climate change demands a comprehensive exploration of diverse carbon removal strategies. As companies embark on innovative initiatives like sinking waste wood, the challenge remains to develop scalable solutions that effectively contribute to the larger goal of mitigating global warming.
More: https://www.science.org/content/article/combat-climate-change-companies-bury-plant-waste-sea
