City Life Magazine 09 | Page 21

FEATURES INTERGOV ERNMENTA L PA NEL ON climate change CLIMATE CHANGE 2013 The Physical Science Basis WG I WORKING GROUP I CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORT OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE 21 Carbon Capture and Storage). This technology consists in massive trees cultivation and other biomasses, then burning them to generate electricity and finally capture the released CO2 and store it underground therefore reducing, in theory, the gases levels in the atmosphere. But the scale of this approach is limited by the practice: it is very difficult to generate large amounts of electricity using trees without causing a potential de-forestation effects, since the energy requirement is so high that the new planting would not enough to satisfy the energy demand, hence the fear that this strategy could decrease the existing forests. For these reasons, the IPCC report consider this approach uncertain and risky. Another interesting system aimed to captur carbon dioxide and store it underground indicated by a research reported by magazine Science: a research group at University College of London and Iceland University, led by Sigurdur Gislason, is trying to implement a project which rocks absorb the great mass of CO2 produced by man. The researchers showed when carbon dioxide is pumped out with the high pressure water into certain types of underground formations there’s a reaction with the surrounding rocks that would trap CO2 for hundreds of years, according to a first very optimistic estimation. The research groups pursuing this idea, they added carbon dioxide to water spray and then pumped it underground. The experiment was conducted near a large geothermal camp in Iceland: results were the carbon dioxide dissolves quickly in water and at this stage no longer has a tendency to rise to the surface. More in detail, the CO2 loaded water reacts with basalt, a type of volcanic rock, and researchers have shown that, within a year, 80% of the CO2 reacted with magnesium, calcium and iron carbonate content in