This story was originally published byGrist.
So the wood may get sent to a pulp mill, if the price is right.
Or it may sit in the forest for years.
© Carbon Lockdown Project
Smaller limbs may be burned in a prescribed fire.
He sees another solution: burying the logs, and all the planet-heating gases theyd otherwise release, underground.
Thats the idea of a carbon sequestration technique called wood vaulting.
A site in Montana where two companies are partnering on biomass burial after a wildfire burned hundreds of acres of privately owned land. © Mast Reforestation
Valuing the carbon stored in wood vaults could change that.
Daniel Sanchez, a professor who studies CO2 removal at the University of California, Berkeley, agrees.
Wood vaulting is a newly emerging approach that we think is relatively low-cost and relatively scalable, he said.
Investors, including Bill Gates, have pouredmillions of dollarsinto jumpstarting wood vaults in recent years.
Once companies acquire biomass, not just any hole will do.
The intrusion of water, oxygen, and even termites could compromise a vaults durability by encouraging decomposition.
Digging vaults in clay or silty soil, away from groundwater, is thought to be best practice.
(Somealternative methodsactually submerge the wood in water entirely, but thats less common.)
Another concern with wood vaulting is that it may incentivize more logging than necessary.
We want to be as clear-minded as possible when promising anything around durability, Crotty said.
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Wood vaulting is also fairly cheap compared to other methods.
Thats the transformative aspect of this idea compared to many other biomass utilization strategies, Zeng said.
It is going to come down to economics.
Several companies are currently trying out wood vaulting, mostly on private land.
Zeng created theCarbon Lockdown Project, which began with a research site outside Montreal, in 2013.
Then theresMast Reforestation, a company that seeks to replant forests after they burn for carbon credits.
Material could be in the ground as soon as later this year.
Carbon Containment Lab scientists partner with companies, including Kodama Systems, to collect their own independent data.
I got really encouraged on this trip, he said.
The dots are getting connected.
This article originally appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/solutions/wood-vaulting-carbon-storage-solution/.
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