Negative CO2 emissions - Climate protection opens new business areas

Farmers to the Rescue - 

One solution to concerns over carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere

OR

Who needs Coal Seam Gas anyway?

Pine plantations and other crops can collect solar energy. They can also store solar energy and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In contrast, solar panels and wind turbines cannot store solar energy and cannot remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Unlike solar panels and wind turbines, pine trees and other crops grow themselves - they are "self-manufacturing". There is no need for factories with high energy demands to manufacture trees and other crops.

Unlike coal seam gas - once its been used, its gone - agriculture can provide a continuous source of energy.

Biomass combined with carbon dioxide capture and storage to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Sawmill waste, other agricultural and municipal waste and coal may be combined and converted into synthesis gas or methane and carbon dioxide.

Ze-gen Gasification Unit

From "BTOLA: Growing Tomorrows Energy Today" -
BTOLA has completed the selection of a Biomass energy crop highly suited to Australian / Queensland conditions: a high yielding cane type perennial grass: Pennisetum Purpureum often called Elephant Grass has been introduced and is widely distributed throughout Queensland. It is usually grown to create windbreaks for conventional crops.  At present it is not considered in itself as a commercial crop.  The crop has the following advantages: 

• Highly drought tolerant due to a deep tap root.
• Is extremely high yielding with yields of 75 tonnes/hectare substantiated in initial trials.
  (Energy use of an average Australian home is the equivalent of about 2.5 tonnes of biomass per year. Here is one way to represent obtaining this energy on a sustainable basis:
  Combine 1.5 tonnes of water, 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide and sunlight
  to create 2.5 tonnes of biomass and 3 tonnes of oxygen.)
• Is a perennial and does not need replanting after harvest.
• Palatable to livestock (can be cut and baled for forage food).
• Is not invasive and only propagated by cane planting (as with sugar cane).
• Planted using conventional sugar cane planting equipment.
• Harvested using conventional cutting, conditioning and baling equipment.

From "BTOLA Indirectly fired gas turbine technology" -
BTOLA converts existing proven gas turbines to indirectly fired gas turbine engines allowing them to run on Biomass, waste products and other fuels lowering fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

BTOLA Rolls Royce 250 C18 on test Bed

From "Carbon Farmers of Australia" - 
1. The Carbon Farming Initiative: new opportunities for additional farm-based revenue.
2. Australian pork producers have been cleared to start earning Carbon Credits under the Carbon Farming Initiative by cutting emissions from manure. They can also slash their power costs by turning the emissions into fuel.

Read more at "Get Carbon Technology Right".

Methane is the major component of natural gas and coal seam gas.

1. It can be distributed through existing natural gas distribution pipelines.
2. It can be used to fuel large gas power stations, domestic and commercial distributed power stations, or any other natural gas appliance.

Carbon dioxide separated from the methane can be stored permanently or sold for a number of applications. For example, algae farming requires reliable supplies of carbon dioxide. Algae can be dried to use as stock-feed, and are very productive; able to produce over 100 tonnes per hectare a year.

More on Science Daily report to remove CO2 from the atmosphere

Carbon storage safe, reliable: scientists 13 December 2011 Carbon dioxide can be safely and reliably stored underground, an Australian-led team of researchers has concluded. The team found that depleted gas fields would be able to store globally significant amounts of CO2 - a key strategy in tackling climate change. The scientists are based at the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) Otway Project at Nirranda South in south-western Victoria.

Another response to concerns over atmospheric carbon dioxide levels

Beyond Zero Emissions has produced a plan that calls for the replacement of all Australia's fossil-fuel power generation infrastructure with solar and wind turbine technology. Features of this plan are summarised below.

Considerable infrastructure is to be written-off, including -

1. All existing coal mines, road and rail transport of coal, and coal-fired power stations.
2. All natural gas power stations including gas peaking plants.
3. All of the natural gas distribution pipelines.

Considerable infrastructure is required, including -

1. Solar thermal power stations.
2. Solar thermal storage.
3. Wind turbines.
4. Electricity grid connections from multiple wind farms, where any or all of those wind-farms may be idle for extended times.

This massive and expensive infrastructure replacement planned by Beyond Zero Emissions will only reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It will do nothing to remove carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.