Science Forums 2

[Taildragerdriver]

Michaelangelica:

Interesting post from Metta Spencer but the first one SOLAREK is not really what you would call a competing technology to Terra Preta it is infact on the other side of the equation. That is a carbon neuteral source of energy. That would be great but we still need to get rid of the carbon we have. (by the way the vast majority of the research that goes on at Los Alamos has nothing to do with bombs or nuclear technology.)

His second example "Luckner" as he refernces may easily be able to grab a lot of carbon. That is part of the equation alright but as near as I can tell the sequestered carbon still has to be disposed of in some way. In other words the results are to get the carbon sequested into a waist product that needs to be disposed of. We have seen lots of energy schemes that produce alright but waist is always the problem.

The great thing about Terra Preta as near as I can tell is that the sequestration is a useful product and the entire system produces positive economics at every stage.

erich:

The interesting thing about the CSiTE references you make is that I have worked closely with some of the people involved with a couple of these methods. They do infact sequester small amounts of carbon per acre. All 5 of them are on the order of 200 to 400 pounds per acre. They all take useful land and take it out of production or at least in to a low production state in a time when the world needs to keep our productive land in production.

Our Terra Preta ideas on the other hand make farm land more productive, improve marginal lands and may bring unusable lands into production. Also we estimate the sequestration to be on the order of 6 to 10 tons per acre (40 times as much as these other methods). In addition if any of the 5 methods above are plowed up or soil stirred up the majority of the sequestered carbon is lost. Not the case with Terra Preta everything I read seems to indicate the charcoal is vertually perminent in the soil.

For me at least I have looked at lots of schemes that are being proposed to solve the carbon problem. In my oppinion many are just crazy. Like pumping Carbon Dioxide into the ground in old oil wells. Isn't it just going to come back out by purculating up through the ground. After reading alot my thought is Terra Preta seems like the best there is. I will be interested to see what else pops up though.

Thanks

Taildragerdriver