PEFTEC - Abstract

Abstract Information :

Proposed approach incorporates the possibility of stepwise CO2 purification in large volumes of the free atmosphere by spraying of alkaline compounds inside natural clouds via an airplane, helicopter or drone. The alkaline reagents significantly increase the solubility of СО2 in water, so rain droplets become saturated by atmospheric CO2 during their gravitational fall. The concentrations of dissociated carbon ions increase in 10 and 100 times accordingly by each unit of pH. Calculations show that the pH increase in liquid water content in clouds up to 10 - 11 can provides the transport of carbon mass more then to 100 Gt. The result is that the method application at 0.08% - 2 % of our planet surface can compensate for annual carbon emission, using smaller KOH mass that is about 10 Mt.

Presented analysis and calculations highlight a number of method advantages. We show a considerable increase of the gas/water interface to get high CO2 purification in ensemble of rainy droplets in comparison with flat ocean surface. At the same time, small sizes of rainy droplets provide fast absorption of CO2 during droplets gravitation fall to satisfy to initial alkaline reserves. The rainy droplets provide the transport of СО2 from the atmosphere to the ground and further more to soil, ground water and plants as a result. A potential benefit for plants was investigated in indoor experiments. To emulate the process of СО2 absorption in water droplets during laboratory experiments, the similar changed was prepared by KOH in water to get pH = 12, and long-time CO2 diffusion at air was performed. Great acceleration of germination and increase in green mass for plants during such irrigation was achieved then water was modified according to the proposed method. These results are explained by high content of carbon and potassium ions. The plants photos will be presented.

Methods for realization of the injection of alkali reagents inside natural clouds were analyzed to be presented at report. The first method comprises the standard injection of powder with typical size in the regions of atmospheric upstream fluxes near the cloud base. The second method will be proposed and analyzed by injection of the special small containers with KOH aerosol delivered by flying airplane above cloud. The rainy droplet sizes are formed according to initial particles sizes, spectrum and cloud parameters, so the alkaline powder should be optimized in both cases. Received carbon mass in the rain was calculated using standard models with Marshall-Palmer approximation. The alkali injection process should provide optimal dispersing of reagent, and rainy droplets should have almost uniform pH-level with planned value.