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♤ Carbon capture and storage, also known as CCS or carbon sequestration, describes the technologies designed to tackle global warming by capturing CO2 at power stations, industrial sites or even directly from the air and permanently storing it underground.
♤ Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer global warming.
♤ It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases, which are released by burning fossil fuels.
Sinks
♤ Carbon sequestration may be carried out by pumping carbon into ‘carbon sinks’— an area that absorbs carbon.
♤ Natural sinks - Oceans, forests, soil etc.
♤ Artificial sinks - Depleted oil reserves, unmineable mines, etc.
♤ Carbon capture has actually been in use for years. The oil and gas industries have used carbon capture for decades as a way to enhance oil and gas recovery. Only recently have we started thinking about capturing carbon for environmental reasons.
There are three main steps to carbon capture and storage (CCS) -
♤ trapping and separating the CO2 from other gases,
♤ transporting this captured CO2 to a storage location, and
♤ storing that CO2 far away from the atmosphere (underground or deep in the ocean).
Types of Sequestration:
♤ There are number of technologies under investigation for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. These can be discussed under three main categories:
♤ Ocean Sequestration: Carbon stored in oceans through direct injection or fertilization.
♤ Geologic Sequestration: Natural pore spaces in geologic formations serve as reservoirs for long-term carbon dioxide storage.
♤ Terrestrial Sequestration: A large amount of carbon is stored in soils and vegetation, which are our natural carbon sinks. Increasing carbon fixation through photosynthesis, slowing down or reducing decomposition of organic matter, and changing land use practices can enhance carbon uptake in these natural sinks.
♤ Geologic Sequestration is thought to have the largest potential for near-term application.
Geologic Sequestration Trapping Mechanisms
♤ Hydrodynamic Trapping: Carbon dioxide can be trapped as a gas under low-permeability cap rock (much like natural gas is stored in gas reservoirs).
♤ Solubility Trapping: Carbon dioxide can be dissolved into a liquid, such as water or oil.
♤ Mineral Carbonation: Carbon dioxide can react with the minerals, fluids, and organic matter in a geologic formation to form stable compounds/minerals; largely calcium, iron, and magnesium carbonates.
♤ Carbon dioxide can be effectively stored in the earth’s subsurface by hydrodynamic trapping and solubility trapping - usually a combination of the two is most effective.
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Asian golden cat prefer forest habitats interspersed with rocky areas, and are found in dry deciduous, subtropical evergreen and tropical rainforests. In India it is distribution in assam& arunachal Pradesh. IUCN Status - near threatened.