CARBON SEQUESTRATION BY POND

BOUND ORGANIC CARBON PALAKKAD DIST, KERALA.

By1Thrivikramji, K.P. & 2Jobin Thomas

1CED, Trivandrm, thrivikramji@gmail.com2Centre for Geomatics, UoK, Kariavattom

Campus, 695581

PONDS AND SMALL LAKES PART OF AGRARIAN CULTURE, RELIGIOUS BELIEVES & NOW PART OF OUR

HERITAGE. NATURAL LOWS OR LOWS WALLED IN BY SOIL + ROCK

EMBANKMENTS EFFICIENTLY STORED RAIN/SNOW MELT- WATER FOR LATER USE DURING WATER EMERGENICIES.

POST WWII & DAWN OF MODERN STORAGE DAMS,

SPREAD OF CANAL IRRIGATION, MACHINERY FOR

PLOWING, SOWING, HARVESTING, CHEM. FERTS & PESTICIDES.

THE CONVENTIONAL PONDS & SMALL LAKES GRADUALLY

SELF-OBSCURED

PONDS, KERALA STATE (SOURCE: “PAN FISH”)

TOTAL NUMBER=41784 AREA = 23814 HA OR 238.0 KM2

PASSIVE STRUCTURES OF CARBONCC&S.

RISING CO2 LEVEL IN TROPOSPHERE

• post industrial revolution

• Rising use of FF like coal, oil and gas

• the chief source or drivers of GCC

• Atmospheric CO2 levels monitored at

Mauna Loa, island in Hawaiian chain.

• Initiated by (Late) Prof.

Keeling, USC, continued by Prof. Ralph

Keeling now,

NOAA Runs 200 observatories.

400 ppm, Nov, 13-13

2012-13 CO2 LEVEL, MAUNA LOA

CO2 CH4

CONSEQUENCES OF CO2 BUILD UP?

• CO2 a green house gas

• CO2 build up leads to:

lower tropospheric warming,

shirking of glaciers,

wasting of polar ice,

rise in sea level,

shift in climatic zones,

changes rainfall patterns,

vegetation shifts etc

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?

• Reduce consumption of fossil fuels?

• Go for new fuels or fuel mixes?

• Sequester (capture & store CO2?)

• Where?

– In geological formations

– In abandoned oil and gas fields

– Mineralize CO2

– In seas & oceans or such other????

Global Carbon Cycle: Inventories

World oceans = ~39,000 GtC

Fossil fuel deposits = ~6,000 GtC

Soils & vegetation = ~2500 GtC,

Atmosphere= ~ 760 GtC2

In Post IR, Land use changes added~136 GtC to

Lr. Troposphere, Fossil fuel use added~270 GtCAtmosphere trapped~180 GtC,

New biomass consumed ~110 GtCBalance entered the oceans.

CO2 Flux, 1990-99. RELEASES=

fossil fuel: ~6.3 GtC/yr, biomass burning (leaves &timber):

~1.6 GtC/yr ABSORPTIONS=

oceans & new/growing vegetation:~2.3 GtC/yr,

Balance =3.3 GtC/ yr in atmosphere.

.

Tropospheric CO2 build up drives up av. Terrestrial temp.; Warms - expands SW &

causes GSLR. Higher av. temp. melts Polar & Greenland

ice sheets, Himalayan glaciers driving up SL.

MITIGATION BY: Lower FF use & lower biomass burning

(forest vegetation) to shrink CO2 emission for reversing potential of warming & SLR

trends

Mitigation Suggestions (Pascala & Solocow (2004):

Raise fuel economy of 2 billion cars from 30 to 60 mpg Reduce use of 2 billion 30-mpg cars, from 10,000 to

5,000 mi/yr.Raise building energy efficiency by 25% vs. levels

projected in 50 years.Double the 32% capacity of efficient baseload (60%

energy efficient) coal-fired power

Mitigation Suggestions (Pascala & Solocow (2004):

Replace 1,400 gw of 50%-energy-efficient coal-fired power plants with natural gas-fired power plants —

quadrupling current gas-fired capacity.Introduce carbon capture & storage (CCS) at 800 Gw

of coal base-load power capacity or 1,600 Gw of natural gas base-load power capacity.

Introduce CCS at plants producing 250 mt/y of hydrogen from coal or 500 mt/y from natural gas.

Carobon capture &

SEQUESTRATION

to set off or apart; separate; segregate;

Carbon capture & sequestration, CCS

One approach for mitigating potential GCC due to anthropogenic emissions of

CO2 & other GHGs, is to capture CO2 at fossil fuel using sources, & store it

terrestrially or oceanically.

Oak Ridge National Lab Focuses on sequestering C in geological

formations, biologically active ponds &

on improving degraded lands to enhance C storage.

Worldwide Potential of CO2 Storage @Gt C

Ocean, 1000–10,000Deep saline formations, 100–10,000

Depleted oil and gas fields, 100–1000Coal seams, 10–1000

Terrestrial, 10–100Utilization Currently, 0.1 Gt C/yr

TOC = OC + CC2 Types- organic and inorganic carbon

TERRESTRIAL SEQUESTRATION: Soil carbon

During photosynthesis, plants convert CO2 into organic carbon – in roots and as plant residue, A

horizon

Inorganic carbon –minor- is in carbonates resulting form non-biological interactions but considered more

permanent.

CHEMICAL SEPARATION – Scrubbing CO2

Amine absorbents: Flue gas is bubbled through a solution of water & (lean) amines. Portion of

CO2 remains in solution & “ rich amines” are pumped to another vessel & heated to

decompose back into regular (lean) amines & pure CO2 gas.

Pure CO2 gas is collected from this vessel, & regular amines are recycled to flue contactor gas

vessel.

GEOLOGICAL SEQUESTRATION

Depleted oil & gas reservoirs: Ideal sites for Pumping down CO2 for long-term

storage. Former oil pools with the cap rock secure reservoirs for storage.

Currently this technology is in vogue for Tertiary recovery of oil & gas.

GEOLOGICAL SEQUESTRATION

Unmineable coal seams: Deep coal seam is not minable. Methane (CBM) trapped in the open pores of coal seams are recovered by drilling deep wells for depressurization &

dewatering. Nitrogen is also pumped down to CBM recovery. Instead, pumping CO2

down will recover the CBM & securely store the CO2.

Serpentinite reactionsReaction 1

Mg-Olivine + Carbon dioxide → Magnesite + Silica

Mg2SiO4 + 2CO2 → 2MgCO3 + SiO2 + H2O

Reaction 2Serpentine + carbon dioxide →

Magnesite + silica + water

Mg3[Si2O5(OH)4] + 3CO2 → 3MgCO3 + 2SiO2 + 2H2O

Reaction 3Mg-Olivine + Water + Silica →

Serpentine

3Mg2SiO4 + 2SiO2 + 4H2O→ 2Mg3*Si2O5(OH)4

Reaction 4Mg-Olivine + Water + Silica →

Serpentine

3Mg2SiO4 + 2SiO2 + 4H2O→ 2Mg3*Si2O5(OH)4

TERRESTRIAL SEQUESTRATION

• Phytoplanktons & Photosynthesizing

terrestrial & aquatic plant life trap C of

atmospheric CO2.

• So organic matter in bottom sediments of

ponds, small & large lakes ideal loci

• River waters trap dissolved OC

• Soil & humus

SKY MINING

CAPTURING CO2 OF FLUE GAS TO make food-grade Na-bicarbonate (baking soda) &

hydrochloric acid, both of which generate revenue. offsets carbon build up.

Also used for the production of CH4

Life on Earth carbon based. Sun’s energy fixes CO2 in biomass.

Fossil fuels – a legacy of algal photosynthesis in geologic past.

CO2 “Mining”

by Algae-marine & freshwater, micro & macro

plants with higher photosynthetic efficiencies compared to terrestrial

plants & thus efficient carbon capturers/traps /removers

HOME OF ALGAL BIOMASS:

TERRESTRIAL WATER BODIES LIKE PONDS, SMALL AND LARGE LAKES AS WELL AS COASTAL OCEANS IN THE LR.

LATITUDES.

Lakes- Globally accumulate OC @ ~ 42 Tg yr−1.

Reservoir sediments trap 160 Tg yr-1, Peatlands trap 96 Tg yr-.

But only cover < 2% of the Earth's surface. A carbon sink of ~300 Tg yr−1.

Oceans cover 71% of Earth's surface, but trap OC @ of ~100 Tg yr−1

Small Continental Waters –LAKES & PONDS completely ignored in all

global processes & cycles. Ecologists ignored such systems & processes, as such

ecosystems of limited areal extent. So no major role in global processes.

“Little things mean a lot”

But recent inventories based on modern geographical & mathematical

approaches show that continental waters occupy nearly twice as much

area as was previously believed

Halbfass (1914) and Thienemann(1925), pioneered cataloguing of

world’s Lakes

Farm ponds linked to extent of agricultural land area &

precipitation. 304 million natural

lakes in the world covering about 4.2 million km2. Roughly twice that of

earlier estimates.

Small lakes, ponds, puddles, marshes & streams, are of disproportionately

greater importance in world cycles & processes.

Globally, small lakes in size0.0001-0.001 km2 (100-1000 m2),

the dominate on continents. Number in the range of 3.2 × 109

natural ponds & cover some 0.8 billion km2

Oligotrophic lakes/ponds with sedimentation rate of <1 mm/y, Life span might be 1000-10,000 y

In highly erodible,nutrient-riched environments, small

lakes/ponds disappearin a few decades by sedimentation &

succession.

Carbon-processing intense small lakes/ponds

more heterotrophicthan large ones,

process substantialamounts of terrestrial or external

carbon

Globally, small agricultural pondscover ~77,000 km2.

OC burialranges from 17 kg C/m2/y to

148 g C/m2/y greater in

small impoundments than large ones

Areal C burial rates in lakes10x - of wetlands

100x of tropical forests, 1000x in tropical & boreal forests, and

10,000x for the world’s oceans.Moderately sized ponds/lakes may

bury 4x as much C as the world’s oceans.

World’s farm ponds likely sequestermore OC/yr than oceans and

33% as much as the world’s rivers deliver to the sea. Rate of C burial in

eutrophic lakes are ~an orderof magnitude higher than those in

oligotrophiclakes of similar size

Ocean & land-based sites have an enormous capacity for storing CO2.

World’s oceans are thelargest traps for carbon storage. Worldwide total anthropogenic

carbon emissions are 7GtC per year (1 GtC=1 billion

metric tons of carbon equivalent).

In Iowa (Downing et al., 2008)

small, agriculturally-eutrophic impoundments

bury carbon @ av. of 2122 g m-2 yr-1

5X higher than in large river impoundments, 30X

more than in small, natural lakes & over 400X

greater than in inland seas & large natural

lakes (Mulholland and Elwood, 1982; Dean and

Gorham, 1998).

PONDS: SPATIAL TYPES

1. Head-valley Ponds

2. Mid-valley Ponds

3. Toe-valley Ponds

PONDS: GENERIC TYPES,

NATIONAL SCENE

1. Temple Ponds

2. Public Ponds

3. Private Ponds

4. Quarry & Mine Ponds

5. ???

PONDS – INTERNATIONAL SCENE

•Most OM of Lakes / ponds

autochthonous, OC/N ratio = <10.0

• Plant pigments in surface sediments

of lakes in the English Lake

District, much like Minnesota lakes,

•Organic matter in more productive lakes

autochthonous (Gorham et al., 1974).

• Average OC content= 20%

• OC/N =11 in sediments of 23

Wisconsin lakes (Brunskill et al., 1971).

• If OC in lakes of glaciated areas of

•N.Hemisphere, like Minnesota

lakes, Experimental Lakes

Area, English lakes, & Great Lakes, is out

of photosynthesis, the carbon pool buried

over the past 10,000 yr must be

enormous.

• Similarly the OC trapped in

Holocene, by the coastal wetlands

(Kayal) of Kerala must be equally

huge in content (e.g., especially in the

humus-rich bottom sediments of

Kuttanad, Vembanad and Kole) and in

the several thousand smaller ponds of

much younger age.

• MAR (MASS ACCUMULATION RATE) OC

IN THE TOP 10.0 CM OF EUTROPHIC

LAKE GREIFEN, SWITZERLAND

•= 50–60 G M–2 YR–1

•BUT STOOD AT ~10 G M–2 YR–1 IN PRE-

1880’S (HOLLANDER ET AL., 1992).

• OC ACCUMULATION IN MINNESOTA

LAKES AVERAGES AT 72 G M–2 YR–1,

•SUM OF OC ACCUMULATION STANDS AT

~1012 G YR–1 OR 1.0 TG YR–1.

• The total OC MAR yr-1 in lakes = 42.0 Tg,• Reservoirs = 160.0 Tg,• Boreal peat-lands = 96.0 Tg• Or sums up to 298.0 Tg.• Total area of three carbon sinks only

about 2% of the world ocean’s surfacearea.

• But they bury 3X more carbon than theoceans do.

• To calculate accumulation rates of

carbon we need measurements of

dry bulk density (DBD), a good

chronology, and measurements of

OC.

SEDIMENT PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Pond-ID SKPM TTLA PLKD KLD CHTR

Organic Carbon,

OC, (%)4.1335 0.973 3.3357 1.752 5.741

Inorganic carbon

(%)2.3988 0.5644 1.9473 1.0162 3.3299

Dry bulk density

(g/ cm3)1.18 1.14 1.16 1.46 0.94

Textural class fszC zC fzC fszC fszC

YEARLY OC BURIAL

Pond-ID SKPM TTLA PLKD KLD CHTR

Area, m2 311.0 5793 11446 2034 200

t C/yr 15.18 64.26 442.89 52.03 10.75

Total burial, t

C/yr585.11

PALAKKAD DIST., Yrly OC BURIAL

Type / Title Area Quantum

Private ponds 948.27 ha 355,612.0 t C/y

Panchayath ponds 176.84 ha 66,287.0 t C/y

Quarry ponds 136 55.16 t C/y

All ponds 1180.27 442,414 t C/y

POND FREQUENCY, KERALA

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

POND FREQUENCY DENSITY, KERALA

0

20

40

60

80

100

POND FREQUENCY, PKD

0

125

250

375

500

POND FREQUENCY DENSITY, PKD

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

CHARACHIRA, TRIVANDRUM

COMMUNITY POND, VEERAVANALLUR, TN

“STORAGE POND”, NANJINADU, NAGERKOVIL

POND TURNING MARSH

SUBURBAN POND, TRIVANDRUM

POND IN KUTTANAD, KERALA

TEMPLE POND, MYLAPORE, CHENNAI

TEMPLE POND, TIRUANNAMALAI

OFFICE COMPLEX IN FILLED POND, TRIVANDRUM

RECLAIMED POND, TRIVANDRUM

ROWING POOL IN OLD TIME POND, TRIVANDRUM

HAVE A GOOD DAY