Get the latest tech news

Why Humans Are Putting a Bunch of ‘Coal’ and ‘Oil’ Back in the Ground

Startups are processing plant waste into concentrated carbon to be buried or injected underground. It’s like fossil fuels, but in reverse.

For years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has insisted that to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, we’re going to need carbon removal in one form or another, preferably a bunch of techniques working in concert. The challenge is that microbes love chewing on dead plant material, releasing carbon dioxide as a byproduct, as well methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas. “If you’re just burying carbohydrates, you always have this risk that you don’t have it in the right conditions,” says Paul Dauenhauer, senior adviser and cofounder of Carba and a chemical engineer at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Get the Android app