CARBON SEQUESTRATION

Submitted to :

Dr. (Prof.) Anjana Sharma

Presented by PALLAVI NANDI M.Phil. MICROBIOLOGY R.D.V.V University Jabalpur

What is carbon sequestration ? Why should we be concerned with CO2 in the atmosphere i.e why is it necessary to sequester C ? What are the different C / CO2 sequestration

pathway ?

WHAT IS GREEN HOUSE EFFECT ?

Radiation from sun hits earth. Earth absorbs some & converts this energy to infrared, which is radiated back into the atmosphere on its way to space. Infrared is absorbed by GHGs. Trapped infrared energy is reradiated back to earths surface.

WHAT ARE GREEN HOUSE GASES?

Carbon dioxide 20 % Ozone - 1 % Methane 16 % Nitrous oxide 3 % Water vapour 60 %

 Man & environment interdependent & interrelated

an integral part of environment.

Onset of industrial revolution Prehistoric time

Human population small

Human population began to increase largely

Needs limited

Resulted in an increased needs & dependence on the environment

Their impact on environment not much

Caused deleterious effects on environment.

Main cause of environmental problems

Transportation which are basically coal & oil driven

Deforestation

Increased industrial activity

Environmental problems today are mainly anthropogenic . A slow build-up of certain gases in the atmosphere , which are responsible for

Climatic changes

Global warming

GREEN HOUSE GASES INFLUENCED BY HUMAN ACTIVITIES.

Current trend of concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere

CO2 Data Set: Original data file posted by NOAA-ESRL on Tuesday August 9, 2011 Measuring Location: Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii The upper safety limit for atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million (ppm). Atmospheric CO2 levels have stayed higher than 350 ppm since early 1988.

Data for Global Carbon Emissions (Fossil fuels, cement, land-use change)
Year 2009 2008 2007 2006 carbon emissions 9.28 billion metric tonnes per year 9.45 billion of metric tonnes per year 9.31 billion metric tonnes per year 9.22 billion metric tonnes per year

Global temperature update

Data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its National Climate Data Center(NCDC) in the USA(Aug 15 2011).

GLOBAL WARMING
Global temperatures have risen by about 0.6 C over the 20th century. Strong evidence -most of the observed warming , by human activites. Rise by about 6 C by the year 2100.

A B Increased frequency of weather extremes storms / floods / droughts

C . Melting of polar ice caps

D. Biodiversity is likely to decrease : endangered lemuroid possum From northern queensland (Australia)

EFFECT OF GLOBAL WARMING ON MICROBES ?

Big unanswered question ? Play major roles in biogeochemical cycles Difficult to answer because of the vast diversity of microbes .

In global warming scenario, an increase microbial

respiration especially in polar climates where permafrost can melt ----- sudden organic matter available for microbial consumption . Thus releasing more C both as peat & methane .

Spread of disease Water borne diseases Heavy rainfall increase risk of increase events water borne risk of human disease outbreaks illness. In warm marine waters Vibrio cholerae & other enteric pathogens . Food-borne diseases Much of the dust ends up in ocean , researchers found supercharges the growth of harmful bacteria that can end up in sea food. University of Georgias Erin Lipp & graduate student Jason Westrict saw a rapid growth of Vibrio (genus of ocean bacteria) within 24 hrs from dust collected from Moroccon deserts when added to sea water taken from Florida .(Fe)

Toxic algae may contaminate more sea-food Blooms of Alexandrium catenella algal species produces a poison that accumulate in sea food & subject humans to everything from vomiting to muscle paralysis to , in rare cases , death. Environmental influences on cyanobacteria growth & toxicity Global warming could provide this species with better environmental conditions for optimal growth. As well as toxin production by some species of cyanobacteria. Reports describe sickness & death of livestock , wildlife followed by ingestion of water containing blooms of toxic cyanobacteria (e.g Lyngbya majuscula).

DIFFERENT PATHWAYS / METHOD FOR C/CO2

SEQUESTRATION

TERRESTRIAL SEQUESTRATION

Constitute a major C sink. Enormous amount of C naturally stored in trees as part of photosynthesis. Although a forest is a net CO2 sink over time , the plantation may also be a source of CO2 emission when C from the soil released into atmosphere. (as while trees die & rot ,release most of the stored C back to atmosphere)

OCEAN SEQUESTRATION
Phytoplanktons photosynthesis fixes approx 45 GT organic C per year. Fe is the limiting factor for phytoplankton growth in 20 % of worlds oceans. Thus , fertilization with FeSO4 could enhance growth , fix more C.

Most of the C gets recycled to atmosphere, but some is drawn down deep into the ocean.

DEEP OCEAN SEQUESTRATION

Enormous sequestration potential .

direct injection of liquid CO2 at depths of 1000m through static or moving pipes.

stores quantities of solid CO2 by discharging blocks of dry ice from ships.

DISADVANTAGES

pH reduction .

Costs for deep ocean disposal of liquid CO2 are very high : include the cost of sequestration at the power plant. Transport to the disposal site.

sudden release of CO2 could cause drastic effects on life forms ----- lake Nyos.

One of thousands of dead cattle that died from CO2 asphyxiation at Lake Nyos on August 21, 1986. Courtesy of J.P. Lockwood,

MICROBES & METHANE DNA ANALYSIS SHOW HOW

SOME DEEP SEA MICROBES LIMIT GLOBAL WARMING

Microbes in marine sediments known to produce huge quantities of methane , but very little reaches the atmosphere. Scientists speculated that most of this methane consumed by other microbes that also live in sediments. Researchers at MBARI & Joint Genome Institute identified a key group of methane consuming microbes called AMNE I a particular strain of archae. But scientists unable to grow these methane consuming archae in lab & little is known.

Although Hallam & coworkers couldnt culture , tried an entirely new & much complicated approach called Environmental Genomics

involves analyzing the DNA of all organisms in a particular environmental setting such as a drop of sea water or a few tablespoon of deep sea mud . Took core sample of sea bottom mud from an area where methane was known to be seeping through the sediments used only mud from a depth at which previous studies confirmed presence of methane consuming microbes. Studied ribosomal DNA

Indicated atleast 13 different types of bacteria & 6 types of archae present in mud sample.

But the AMNE I (methane consuming) archae dominant group . Hallam research provides a detailed description of a process that has upto now been largely theoretic There is an ongoing research process.

GEOLOGICAL SEQUESTRATION
Also known as geo sequestration. Involves injecting CO2 generally in supercritical form , can effuse through solids like gas & dissolve materials like a liquid directly into underground geological formation.

Deep coal seams which are unmineable can be used to store CO2 permanently underground where the CO2 molecules attach to the surface of coal. In this process of absorption the coal releases previously absorbed methane & the methane can be recovered.

CO2 enhanced coal bed methane production

Disadvantage Though the sale of the methane can be used to offset a portion of the cost of C storage. Burning the resultant methane , however would produce CO2 , which would negate some of the benefit of sequestering the original CO2.

MINERAL SEQUESTRATION
In this process CO2 is exothermically reacted with available metal oxides , which in turn produces stable carbonates . This process occurs naturally over many years & is responsible for a great amount of surface of limestone.

Earthen oxide CaO MgO Na2O FeO K2O

Percent of crust 4.90 4.36 3.55 3.52 2.80

carbonate CaCO3 MgCO3 Na2CO3 FeCO3 K2CO3

Advantages : carbonate is the lowest energy state of C , not CO2 Carbon 400 KJ/mole CO2 60 -180 KJ/mole carbonate the raw materials such as Mg based minerals are abundant. Their disposal is permanent as thermodynamically stable . Implementation without an external supply of heat is possible because reaction is exothermic.

Disadvantages : extensive mining operations necessary will have environmental impact like erosion Loss of biodiversity Contamination of soil, ground water & surface water by chemicals from mining process.

BIOMIMETIC SEQUESTRATION OF CO2 IN CARBONATE FORM:

Bios life ; mimetic ability to imitate Refers to human made processes , systems that imitate nature , i.e. where structure & function of biological systems are used as models for the design & engineering of a process.

A new biomimetic approach to C sequestration using carbonic anhydrase provides a viable means to accelerate CO2 hydration reaction & has been found to be feasible for fixing large quantities of CO2 into CaCO3 in presence of suitable cations at moderate pH values invitro.

CARBONIC ANHYDRASE
Zinc containing metalloenzyme catalyzing the rapid interconversion of CO2 + H2O HCO3-+ H +

HCO3 Ca 2+ + CO32

CO32 - + H + CaCO3

ubiquitously found in nature from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. Exists in distinct classes : , , , ,

The mechanism of CO2 hydration: Zinc-bound hydroxide attacks the carbonyl carbon of CO2 to form zinc-bound bicarbonate; bicarbonate is subsequently displaced with water by a ligand-exchange step.

In the second step, H+ is transferred from zinc-bound water to regenerate the catalytically active species, the zinc-bound hydroxide . H2O E-Zn-OH-+CO2 E -ZCn-HCO3 E-Zn-OH2+ HCO3 E-Zn-OH2 E-Zn-OH- + H+

This metalloenzyme reported to be present in animals, plants and microorganisms. Function of carbonic anhydrase enzyme : respiration photosynthesis pH homeostasis rapid inter-conversion of carbon dioxide and water into carbonic acid, protons and bicarbonate ions. calcification of corals.

Table 1. Detection of carbonic anhydrases in microbes

Molecular mass in Western blotting,( kDa) Species Bacteria domain -class -class -class Specific activity units/mg 7.3 0.6 <0.01

Acetobacterium woodii
Bacillus subtilis Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans Clostridium thermoaceticum Helicobacter pylori Pseudomonas aeruginosa

23 -

22
* 23 24 25 23: 25

19
* 19 18 20

<0.01
1.0 0.1 <0.01 <0.01

Specific activity units/mg Rhodobacter capsulatus Rhodobacter sphaeroides Rhodospirillum rubrum Salmonella typhimurium Staphylococcus aureus Vibrio fischeri 22 23 23 21 26 23 18 18 19 * 19

An asterisk (*) indicates that crossreactive protein expected from sequence data was not detected

Species Archaea domain

-class

-class

-class

Specific activity units/mg

Methanobacterium formicicum

21

<0.01

Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Marburg Methanococcus jannaschii Methanosaeta concilii Methanosarcina barkerii

21 21

17 17

* 21 37

This CA has been reported in Pseudomonas fragii , Bacillus pumilus , Micrococcus lylae has potential for CO2 sequestration . Provides a viable means to accelerate CO2 hydration reaction & has been found to be feasible for fixing large quantities of CO2 in CaCO3 in presence of suitable cations at moderate pH invitro.

The end product is in the form of CaCO3 that is Safe stable Environmentally benign ecofriendly

RESEARCHERS ENGINEER BACTERIA TO TURN CO2 INTO LIQUID FUEL

Researchers from UCLA Henry Samueli School of engineering & applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacteria Synechoccus elongatus Genetically increase the quantity of the CO2 fixing enzyme RUBisCo spliced genes from other microorganism that intake CO2 & sunlight to produce isobutyraldehyde gas

Genetically engineered strains of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus in a Petri dish

NEW PROCESS USES GENETICALLY MODIFIED YEAST TO TURN CO2 EMISSIONS INTO BRICKS FOR
CONSTRUCTION

MIT reseachers modified bakers yeast to express genes that are normally found in sea creatures like abalones , which make hard carbonate shells . This genetically engineered yeast help turn the dissolved CO2 into solid carbonates . according to MIT the process produce 2 pounds of carbon for every pound captured CO2.

MIT Professor Angela Belcher and graduate student Roberto Barbero are working on a way to convert carbon dioxide gas to carbonates that could be used as building materials.

COMPARISION
Biotic sequestration Intervention of higher plants & microorganism . finite sink capacity. Cost effective process have numerous additional benefits:Improve quality of soil & water resources. Reduced soil erosion Better wild life habitat. are immediately applicable
o

Abiotic sequestration Engineering process , without intervention of living organisms. Sink capacity extremely large. Expensive techniques Disadvantages:Injected CO2 is prone to leakage risks Adverse ecological impacts. may be available for routine use by 2025 & beyond.