Mad Idea of The Day: Carbon Capture Using Autumn Leaves

By Ian Page - 2021.11.14

I've just been reading Elon Musk’s carbon capture X prize, but no one has suggested collecting autumn leaves and burying them deep underground in old mines. (After drying of course).

Given the outcome of COP26, (2.4 Degrees warming not 1.5), we are going to need some serious CO2 direct air capture to suck the stuff out.

Leaves that are collected in city streets are generally too polluted to use on the land, and so tend to be burnt, which generates some energy but puts the CO2 back in the air (as well as some of the pollution)

If they were instead buried/sequestered they would effectively achieve direct air capture, the only additional cost is finding a suitable hole to put them in and seal them up. (They must be dried before burning anyway)

I've no idea what contribution this would make, or if there are enough easy access holes, but it struck me as a plausible concept.

(If wet they would generate methane over time, so an alternative is to put them in city dumps that have methane collection systems, but again this puts the CO2 back in the air.)


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