A Plan to Save the World
The plan is to subject biomass (non fossil organic material) to pyrolysis. This turns about a third of the carbon content into elemental carbon in the form of charcoal, about a third into into a mixture of tarry organic compounds and the rest as flammabble gases.
This mixture of organic compounds, “Bio-crude”, would have a composition similar to tars or crude oil from fossil sources and could replace fossil crude oil as a feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
The goal is grow the installation of infrastucture to supply of bio-crude as fast as normally possible. However if it may be possible to demonstrate that bio-crude can be made cheaper than fossil-crude by some sort of special funding arraingement.
Note that this is not a recipie for business as usual. It looks likely that the amount of biomass that could be available would be the amount that would be needed to power air travel but not much more. Hopefully there will be enough to provide all the plastics and chemicals produced by the petrochemical industry.
Plants live by taking in carbon dioxide from the air by photosynthasis and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. The carbon has been taken out of the atmosphere and put into the biomass and it is only goes back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide if it is burnt, or as methane if it rots .
Charcoal is nearly pure graphite which is very stable and can exist in sediments without reaction on a geological timescale. Most of the charcoal can be buried, some, with advantage, as terra preta and it will stay there provided it is dispersed sufficiently to not be ignitable.
In some cultures charcoal is used for heating and cooking. The proposed pyrolysis process will be more efficient and much less polluting than traditional charcoal burning. The carbon in the charcoal that is used this way is simply returned to atmosphere where it came from. But if it is used in preference to bottled gas from a fossil source there would be a net reduction of atmospheric CO2
The flammable gasses can be burnt to provide energy. Some will be needed to heat the pyrolysis process.
Supply of harvested organic matter
There would be easily enough to supply the hydrocarbon fuel for longhaul passenger aviation.
| Noxious | https://www.livescience.com/61966-how-much-you-poop-in-lifetime.html |
| Noxious | Food waste: UN,WWF,BBC news 4 mar 2021 |
| Agri waste | https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/agricultural-waste#chapters-articles |
| All Wood | https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/global-wood-production-supply-by-country-by-year/#:~:text=Global%20wood%20production%20is%204bn%20m3%20per%20year,as%2090%25%20in%20the%20world%27s%20least%20developed%20countries. |
| Paper | 20% |
| Fuel | 50% |
| Long-Lasting | 30% |
| Biommass for fuel | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0885 |
| Long haul passenger | Global inequalities in CO₂ emissions from aviation – Our World in Data |
| All passenger | What share of global CO₂ emissions come from aviation? – Our World in Data |
How much carbon to depost?
Conclusion
It can be done. It would be a hugh effort. But we have to do it.
It would mean that we would be taking control of the climate situation, stimulate global cooperation, and provide hope.