Page 40 2023 Fall Farm Outlook Lincoln Daily News Oct 2023 Each year it seems that a topic comes along that quickly turns into a hot button issue on a local level and even on a state level. For more than a year now, that issue in Logan County and indeed in several central Illinois counties has been CO2 Sequestration and a proposed pipeline. While some know a great deal on this topic, others know very little. Therefore, it might be time to try and clean up the muddiness on the topic to the best of our ability. CO2 is a natural occurrence in the atmosphere. It is a biproduct of decay and fermentation and is commonly referred to as a greenhouse gas. It is tied to agriculture in that the decay and fermentation of farm waste is responsible in part for the production of this gas known as Carbon Dioxide. There are other sources for CO2 including industrial waste and fossil fuel incineration or acts of nature such as volcanos. Carbon Dioxide is a useful part of the ecosystem in that it is utilized by growing plants for photosynthesis and expelled back into the atmosphere as life-sustaining oxygen. CO2 also has its uses. It is utilized in welding, as an ingredient in fire extinguishers, and is added to carbonated beverages like seltzer and beer. While none of this sounds terrible there is a The current “hot button” issue - CO2 pipelines and sequestration flip side and that is that the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased dramatically in the last 100 years from 280 parts per million or about 0.025% saturation to 421 parts per million or about 0.04% saturation. The increase in these levels is being attributed to increased burning of fossil fuels and overall industrialization. This has led to a number of activities intended to reduce the “carbon footprint” including proposals for carbon reduction in the agricultural sector, a shift to “clean energy” and proper capture and storage of excess carbon via sequestration. What is Carbon Sequestration? Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. These pools can be natural occurring, but technology is also being used to enhance the physical act of sequestration. Natural occurring sequestration is the process of having carbon dioxide stored in plant life for photosynthesis with the waste product released into the atmosphere being oxygen. Some of the proposals for enhancing this type of sequestration includes asking agricultural producers to utilize less acres for harvestable crops and instead planting those acres to rapidly growing lush greens that will consume greater quantities of the CO2. The less natural way of sequestering carbon dioxide is through injections into the earth’s sub-surface utilizing Saline aquifers or aging oil fields. Then there is the definition that has been of greatest concern locally, as presented by Continued --
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