Carbon sequestration

Carbon sequestration is a geoengineering technique for the long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon, for the mitigation of global warming. Carbon dioxide is usually captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical or physical processes. It has been proposed as a way to mitigate the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere released by the burning of fossil fuels.

CO2 may be captured as a pure by-product in processes related to petroleum refining or from flue gases from power generation. CO2 sequestration can then be seen as being synonymous with the storage part of carbon capture and storage which refers to the large-scale, permanent artificial capture and sequestration of industrially-produced CO2 using subsurface saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil fields, or other carbon sinks.

Sequestration techniques are not instantaneous and when considering their efficacy, consideration has to be given to the fact that they will therefore be acting on future (not current) CO2 levels. These levels are expected by the IPCC to be higher than today's.

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