question: I just read the article on Bill Gates and big oil backing a CO2 sucking machine, why is this more effective than say planting a field of trees?
comment: Things that come to mind: 1. Doesn’t require the same space 2. Doesn’t require years and years to fully mature, and so is potentially at maximum effect earlier 3. It’s - and I cannot express this enough - PROFITABLE. How do I know for sure? Cause big oil (or any mega-corporation) typically doesn’t do anything other than follow the money, and they sure as hell wouldn’t consider investing in it if it didn’t have some form of monetary payout.
passages: Electric vehicles powered by batteries are another alternative, and these have the advantage of having the highest well-to-wheels efficiency rate of any energy pathway and thus would allow much greater numbers of vehicles than any other methods. In addition, even if the electricity was sourced from coal-fired power plants, two advantages would remain: first it is cheaper to sequester carbon from a few thousand smokestacks than it is to retrofit hundreds of millions of vehicles, and second encouraging the use of electric vehicles allows a further pathway for scaling up of renewable energy sources.
   This above-ground cycle has the potential to be carbon neutral, but of course the human involvement in the process means additional energy input, often coming from fossil sources. If the fossil energy spent on the operation is high compared to the operation's energy output, the CO2 footprint can approach, match or even exceed the CO2 footprint from burning fossil fuels directly, as has been shown to be the case for several first-generation biofuel projects.
  
  Transport fuels might be worse than solid fuels in this regard. 
   For Miscanthus planted on marginal land limited by cold temperatures (Moscow), the reduction in atmospheric CO2 is estimated to be 19.2 tonnes per hectare per year (7.7 tonnes per acre), with fossil energy savings of 273 GJ per hectare per year (110 GJ per acre). For marginal land limited by drought (Turkey), the atmospheric CO2 level can potentially be reduced with 24 tonnes per hectare per year (9.7 tonnes per acre), with fossil energy savings of 338 GJ per hectare per year (137 tonnes per acre).
   One proposed method is by so-called "artificial trees". This concept, proposed by climate scientist Wallace S. Broecker and science writer Robert Kunzig, imagines huge numbers of artificial trees around the world to remove ambient CO. The technology is now being pioneered by Klaus Lackner, the director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions (CNCE) and a professor in School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University, whose artificial tree technology can suck up to 1,000 times more CO from the air than real trees can at a rate of about one ton of carbon per day if the artificial tree is approximately the size of an actual tree. The CO would be captured in a filter and then removed from the filter and stored.
   For first generation bio-energy crops, the greenhouse gas footprints were often large, but second generation bio-energy crops like Miscanthus reduces its CO2 footprint drastically. Hastings et al. found that Miscanthus crops «[…] almost always has a smaller environmental footprint than first generation annual bioenergy ones [...].» 
   Replacing more energy intensive farming operations can also reduce emissions. Reduced or no-till farming requires less machine use and burns correspondingly less fuel per acre. However, no-till usually increases use of weed-control chemicals and the residue now left on the soil surface is more likely to release its to the atmosphere as it decays, reducing the net carbon reduction.
   Gardeners may cause extra carbon dioxide to be added to the atmosphere in several ways:
  
  BULLET::::- Using peat or potting compost containing peat;
  
  BULLET::::- Buying garden furniture or other wooden products made from woodland which has been destroyed rather than taken as a renewable crop from sustainably managed woodland;
  
  BULLET::::- Digging soil and leaving it bare so that the carbon in soil organic matter is oxidised;
  
  BULLET::::- Using power tools which burn fossil fuel or electricity generated by burning fossil fuel;
  
  BULLET::::- Using patio heaters;
  
  BULLET::::- Heating greenhouses by burning fossil fuel or electricity generated by burning fossil fuel;
   Because trees remove carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, tree planting can be used as a geoengineering technique to remove  from the atmosphere. Desert greening projects are also motivated by improved biodiversity and reclamation of natural water systems, but also improved economic and social welfare due to an increased number of jobs in farming and forestry.
  
  Section::::By country.
  
  Section::::By country.:Australia.
   Many new bioenergy (biofuel) technologies, including cellulosic ethanol biorefineries (using stems and branches of most plants including crop residues such as corn stalks, wheat straw and rice straw) are being promoted because they have the added advantage of biosequestration of CO. The Garnaut Climate Change Review recommends that a carbon price in a carbon emission trading scheme could include a financial incentive for biosequestration processes. 
   The conversion of coal or natural gas into oil generates large amounts of carbon dioxide in addition to all the impacts of gaining these resources to begin with. However, placing plants in key areas can reduce the effective emissions due to pumping the carbon dioxide into oil beds or coal beds to enhance the recovery of oil and methane.
   Some scientists and companies are going beyond using just the oil, and are proposing to convert fronds, empty fruit bunches and palm kernel shells harvested from oil palm plantations into renewable electricity, cellulosic ethanol, biogas, biohydrogen and bioplastic. Thus, by using both the biomass from the plantation as well as the processing residues from palm oil production (fibers, kernel shells, palm oil mill effluent), bioenergy from palm plantations can have an effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Examples of these production techniques have been registered as projects under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism.
   Enrichment only becomes effective where, by Liebig's law, carbon dioxide has become the limiting factor. In a controlled greenhouse, irrigation may be trivial, and soils may be fertile by default. In less-controlled gardens and open fields, rising CO levels only increase primary production to the point of soil depletion (assuming no droughts, flooding, or both), as demonstrated "prima facie" by CO levels continuing to rise. In addition, laboratory experiments, free air carbon enrichment (FACE) test plots, and field measurements provide replicability.
  
  Section::::Types.
   The amount of carbon sequestrated and the amount of GHG (greenhouse gases) emitted will determine if the total GHG life cycle cost of a bio-energy project is positive, neutral or negative. Specifically, a GHG/carbon negative life cycle is possible if the total below-ground carbon accumulation more than compensates for the above-ground total life-cycle GHG emissions. Whitaker et al. estimates that for Miscanthus x giganteus, carbon neutrality and even negativity is within reach. Basically, the yield and related carbon sequestration is so high that it more than compensates for both farm operations emissions, fuel conversion emissions and transport emissions. The graphic on the right displays two CO2 negative Miscanthus x giganteus production pathways, represented in gram CO2-equivalents per megajoule. The yellow diamonds represent mean values.
   Under a 2009 agreement, Loy Yang Power and MBD Energy Ltd will build a pilot Fossil fuel power plant at the Latrobe Valley power station in Australia using biosequestration technology in the form of an algal synthesiser system. Captured CO from the waste exhaust flue gases will be injected into circulating waste water to grow oil-rich algae where sunlight and nutrients will produce heavy oil-laden slurry that can make high grade oil for energy, or stock feed. Other commercial demonstration projects involving biosequestration of CO at point of emission have begun in Australia.
  
  Section::::Philosophical basis of biosequestration.
   Cafe Bom Dia was able to achieve this by implementing a program to obtain sustainably forested eucalyptus wood and by using coffee tree trimmings as sources of fuel for its furnaces.
  
  BULLET::::- 141 gallons of diesel saved per 1,000 pounds of roasted coffee (1,180 L/t)
  
  BULLET::::- 36,630 pound (16.61 t) decrease of CO emissions in first year of conversion
  
  BULLET::::- 74% energy costs saved per 1,000 pounds of coffee
  
  BULLET::::- 14.8 pounds of organic material provided to local farmers for compost per 1,000 pounds of roasted coffee (14.8 kg/Mg)
   The possibility of using carbon dioxide enrichment in greenhouse cultivation to enhance plant growth has been known for nearly 100 years. After the development of equipment for the controlled serial enrichment of carbon dioxide, the technique was established on a broad scale in the Netherlands. Secondary metabolites, e.g., cardiac glycosides in "Digitalis lanata", are produced in higher amounts by greenhouse cultivation at enhanced temperature and at enhanced carbon dioxide concentration. Carbon dioxide enrichment can also reduce greenhouse water usage by a significant fraction by mitigating the total air-flow needed to supply adequate carbon for plant growth and thereby reducing the quantity of water lost to evaporation. Commercial greenhouses are now frequently located near appropriate industrial facilities for mutual benefit. For example, Cornerways Nursery in the UK is strategically placed near a major sugar refinery, consuming both waste heat and CO from the refinery which would otherwise be vented to atmosphere. The refinery reduces its carbon emissions, whilst the nursery enjoys boosted tomato yields and does not need to provide its own greenhouse heating.
   The development of all types of biofuel, including Treethanol can be of importance for countries looking to decrease their dependence on petroleum, especially those countries that import most of their petroleum and also have plenty of crop/forest land such as New Zealand and Sweden.
   Confirming the above numbers, McCalmont et al. found that the mean energy input/output ratios for Miscanthus is 10 times better than for annual crops, while GHG costs are 20-30 times better than for fossil fuels. 
  
  For instance, Miscanthus chips for heating saved 22.3 tonnes of CO2 emittance per hectare per year in the UK (9 tonnes per acre), while maize for heating and power saved 6.3 (2.5 per acre). Rapeseed for biodiesel saved only 3.2 (1.3 per acre). 
   Where there is existing electricity generation using fossil fuels, there is a source of sterile CO. This makes algaculture much easier. To grow algae you need lots of CO, but if you get it from air you will also get all kinds of other organisms, some of which eat algae. Getting CO from a smokestack works out really well. Governments trying to address the external costs of coal power plants may have a carbon tax or carbon credit that provides additional motivation to use CO from smokestacks. Several commercial pilot plants are under construction.
   The Midale oil field is about in size, and has of oil-in-place. It began injecting CO in 2005.
   The main advantage of using "grown fuels", as opposed to fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil, is that while they are growing they absorb the near-equivalent in carbon dioxide (an important greenhouse gas) to that which is later released in their burning. In comparison, burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric carbon unsustainably, by using carbon that was added to the Earth's carbon sink millions of years ago. This is a prime contributor to climate change.
   A life cycle assessment by the Yale School of Forestry on jatropha, one source of potential biofuels, estimated using it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85% if former agro-pastoral land is used, or increase emissions by up to 60% if natural woodland is converted to use. In addition, biofuels do not contain sulfur compounds and thus do not emit sulfur dioxide.
   Farm animals account for between 20% and 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That figure includes the clearing of land to feed and graze the animals. Clearing land of trees, and cultivation, are the main drivers of farming emissions. Deforestation eliminates carbon sinks, accelerating the process of climate change. Cultivation, including the use of synthetic fertilisers, releases greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide. Nitrogen fertiliser is especially demanding of fossil fuels, as producing a tonne of it takes 1.5 tonnes of oil.
   Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery or CO2-EOR increases the amount of oil recovered from an underground oil reservoir. By pumping into an oil reservoir, previously unrecoverable oil is pushed up to where the oil can be reached. The US Department of Energy states that this can produce an additional 30 to 60 percent of the original amount of recoverable oil. Once all of the recoverable oil has been reached, the depleted reservoir can act as a storage site for the .
   Although this process could reduce CO emissions from conventional power plants by as much as 80–90%, if combined with increased oil recovery the net savings in carbon emissions may be much less as the total volume of oil and gas used from that field would increase.
  
  Section::::Energy production and distribution.:Electricity distribution.
  