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A massive increase in the production of water, carbon negative energy and nutrients can be achieved through chemosynthesis.


Description

Summary


Which proposals are included in your plan and how do they fit together?

 

The Water, Energy, Nutrient Nexus (WENN) Protocol attempts to outline a suite of extant technologies which can support, to a substantial degree, the net negative global emissions of CO2 as well as support the critical needs of water and nutrient management.


(CPWF Mekong)

The core benefits of the WENN Protocol are listed below:  

- Capture, utilization and sequestration of carbon through marine and terrestrial chemosynthesis based biomass production with further processing of the biomass into bio-fuels, biochar, food, feed, fertilizer, polymers, freshwater etc.

- Sustainably utilize atypical bulk nutrients, such as found in the marine nutricline and/or terrestrial animal/human sewage streams, to support the the above metastrategy.

- Global standardization of primary climate change mitigation and sequestration (WENN) technologies so as to create:

a) economies of scale in equipment purchasing/deployment;

b) a means for streamlining a global scale funding effort;

c) a means for establishing an intergovernmental production and environmental protection protocol;

- Be applicable to a wide spectrum of relevant sectorial interests such as energy supply, transportation, industry, land use, waste management, urban adaptation etc.;

- Be universally applicable to all global regions so as to provide a core suite of technology, funding and governance tools at the global scale;

- Be a foundational suite of technologies which can technically support many other climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies/concepts both today and in the future.

- Be supportive of carbon negative emissions strategies such as the Representative Concentration Pathway 2.6 scenario.  

- Be fundable through current and future 'Green' bond/grant programs:

Key scientific and market rationale for the WENN Protocol:

A) IPCC (WG3)-"..the combination of bio-energy, carbon capture and..storage (BECCS)...if biomass is grown sustainably, this combination may lead to negative emissions"The WENN Protocol is a BECCS class proposal. Production and use of WENN derived Biochar is the primary carbon sequestration path and thus the WENN STEM is a carbon negative energy production scenario a.k.a BECCS.

(exchangemagazine.com)

B) REDUCTION OF CARBON DIOXIDE COUPLED WITH THE OXYHYDROGEN REACTION IN ALGAE: (a)(b)(c)(dHydrogen Based primary production of biomass and water.


(Buzzle)

C) Chemosynthetic biomass can be lower in cost due to multiple factors. The primary technical issue is starting out with anoxic water and ample H2 production. Deep ocean waters can provide for both needs (a)(b)(c).

 

Marine WENN Tech:

Marine Biomass- International interest in sustainable marine biomass/biofuel production is high (a)(b)(c)(d)(e).


(Green chemistry and the ocean-based biorefinery (Francesca M. Kerton et al.) 

Marine Biomass Production Actors:


(Blue Frontiers) The above depiction of relative percentiles has been challenged by knowledgeable persons and is thus subject to debate.   

Examples of Large Scale Marine Multiplexed Projects Currently Under Development:

(Shimizu)

(Tropos)

(Dr. M. Lamas Pardo)


NASA/OMEGA Project. "..to grow algae, clean wastewater, capture carbon dioxide and..produce biofuel without competing with agriculture for water, fertilizer or land."

What actions are being proposed in the marine space?

Harvesting marine nutrients:

(Maruyama et al.)

Once the raw resources, such as anoxic water; raw nutrients; CO2 and Hydrogen are harvested/produced, a high through-put flow of biomass will fed into either off-shore or on-shore biorefineries for further processing into a wide spectrum of downstream products. 

 

Land WENN Tech:

The above marine technology can also be used in terrestrial tanks and/or custom designed pipelines or existing pipelines (e.g. Dark Bio-Reactor Pipelines - DBRPs).

Future WENN Corridors?

Most utility corridors can be a WENN corridor.

Due to the high 'public use need' for WENN conversion (i.e. existential need for AGW mitigation/adaptation and critical infrastructure up-grades), eminate domain laws (EDLs) can hypothetically be used to secure existing pipelines/lands (a)(b) for WENN use.

Using EDLs to acquire existing corridors reduces initial costs.

(First Biodiesel Pipeline...Or, future DBRP?)

Thus, the WENN can be developed along common utility right-of-ways (2M km+US). Adding sustainable and resilient advanced transportation and information technology to the above would be logical.







Initial Start-up Funding for the WENN STEM and management regimen can be achievedthrough the use of environmentally focused intergovernmental agreements, market funding instruments and/or non-profit funding programs such as:

1) The Green Climate Fund (a):

"..the Fund will promote the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, taking into account the needs of those developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.".


In the non-intergovernmental space, a growing number of important market funding paths are being developed. Such as:

2) Green Bond Principles 2014: Voluntary Process Guidelines for Issuing Green Bonds:




3) World Bank Green Bond

"Funding for new technologies that permit significant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions"

4) Homeland Security Grants

"Strengthen national preparedness and resilience, building a ready and resilient Nation, with the ability to plan, prepare for, and respond to disasters. Proposals for climate resilience coupled with a restructured DHS grant program will help create robust national preparedness capabilities.".

5) "Transforming the Traditional Municipal Bond Market to Finance Environment-Friendly Green Projects"

"In 2013 Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. municipal bond market to issue these so-called green bonds.  The offering was so successful that Massachusetts tripled the volume of green bonds offered in 2014, selling $350 million in bonds to individual and institutional investors this month. According to Massachusetts Treasury officials, the demand for green bonds far outpaced the supply.  The Treasury reportedly received received

6) ‘Conservation Bonds’ Take Green Financing to the Next Level

"Green bonds, as described by the World Bank, “are fixed income, liquid financial instruments that are used to raise funds dedicated to climate-mitigation, adaptation, and other environment-friendly projects.” When issued by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, or agencies of national governments such as the German Development Bank, such bonds may carry low, or even concessionary interest rates. Furthermore, a number of private financial institutions, attracted by the reliable returns on projects financed by green bonds, have entered the marketplace.

The Green Bond market is rapidly growing. First issued by the World Bank in 2007, the green bond market grew to $11 billion in 2013. As reported by the World Bank, some $32 billion of green bonds have been issued by multilaterals, governments and corporate issuers from January through October 2014, and could surpass $40 billion for the year.". 

7) Climate Bond Initiative:

"Green bonds were created to fund projects that have positive environmental and/or climate benefits. The majority of the green bonds issued are green “use of proceeds” or asset-linked bonds. Proceeds from these bonds are earmarked(link is external) for green projects but are backed by the issuer’s entire balance sheet. There have also been green "use of proceeds" revenue bonds(link is external), green project bonds and green securitized (link is external) bonds.".

8) "The wheels of climate finance are turning: the Green Climate Fund (GCF) will soon start distributing funds through 7 institutions.".

"The accredited institutions include the following:

  • Centre de suivi écologique (CSE) from Senegal, which focuses on combating desertification and protecting coastal areas. In 2010, CSE was the first national institution to be accredited and to implement a project through the Adaptation Fund , the first international climate fund to take the pioneering step of accrediting developing country institutions.
  • Fondo de Promoción de las Áreas Naturales Protegidas del Péru (PROFONANPE) that specializes in funding biodiversity conservation and managing protected areas. Like CSE, PROFONANPE is also accredited to the Adaptation Fund.
  • the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), an intergovernmental organization of Pacific Island countries and territories, based in Samoa, which focuses on protection and sustainable development of the Pacific region’s environment
  • the Acumen Fund, Inc. (Acumen), a well-respected private venture capital fund that invests in developing country entrepreneurs and businesses working to alleviate poverty and advance sustainable development. The social impact investment fund works on improving the lives of low income communities in Africa and Asia, especially in healthcare, agriculture and clean energy.

 

Three international organizations were also accredited: the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).".

9) "Major International Research Initiative Launched to Improve Food Security for Developing Countries - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." (a).

"Listening to farmers and addressing their specific needs. We talk to farmers about the crops they want to grow and eat, as well as the unique challenges they face. We partner with organizations that understand and are equipped to address these challenges, and we invest in research to identify relevant and affordable solutions that farmers want and will use. 

  • Increasing farm productivity.
  • Fostering sustainable agricultural practices. 
  • Achieving greater impact with partners. 

 

10) Large-scale Aquaponics Project - Optimized Food and Water Management

11) Cities for Climate Protection program

12) Clean Trillion

The above list is not exhaustive and the 'Green Grant' based programs would only be needed to start the WENN Protocol while the 'Green Bonds' can be used to expand WENN operations. The WENN Protocol can become profitable within 7-10 years. This time to profit estimate is based upon the potential profits from the large number of product streams which the technology provides.

Governance:


(greenlifestyles.org)

Collaborative proposal synthesis:

There are a number of proposals, within the Colab library of proposals, which can be technically linked to the WENN Protocol and the related technology suite. However, working through the full library of the MIT CoLab proposals and relating them specifically to the WENN Protocol and/or technology suite will take considerable time and effort which is not available until the next semifinals level.

US Carbon Price: Assigning Carbon Value Through Utilization

Building a National HVDC Power Grid to enable renewable energy to get to...

Underwater Suspension Tunnels.

Marine BECCS (biofuel) Investment as Carbon Credit for Fossil Fuel Compa...

Expanding the Concept of Cap-n-Trade to Other Related Commodities

Electrify Interstate Highways

USG Leadership on MBECS Developement/Demand and Within International Tre...

Climate Action Plan

An Internalised Price on Carbon

Retrofit diesel engines with black carbon filters as a project cost

Green Impact Bonds - developing and financing our best and brightest ideas

(IPC)Phase out extraction of carbon-based fuels from public lands

Kick Starting A Global Transition To A Green Economy; Financing Climate ...

The Little Engine That Could: Revenue Neutral Carbon Fee and Dividend

Kick Starting A Global Transition To A Green Economy; Financing Climate ...

 

 


Explanation of the emissions scenario calculated in the Impact tab

As outlined above, the WENN Protocol and it's related technologies attempts to create a global scale carbon negative emissions scenario while addressing other critical climate change mitigation/adaptation needs such as water and nutrient management.

Global scale carbon negative emissions of CO2 can be expected once the WENN Protocol is established at the international level and the technology suite is deployed and expanded to meet the critical commodity needs, such as bio-fuel, biochar, food, feed, fertilizer etc., of a meaningful number of nations.

The closest generally available depiction of the expected emissions scenario of a deployed WENN program is found in the description of the Representative Concentration Pathway 2.6:

RCP 2.6– Low emissions

This RCP is developed by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Here radiative forcing reaches 3.1 W/m2 before it returns to 2.6 W/m2 by 2100. In order to reach such forcing levels, ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions would be required over time.

This future would require:

1) Declining use of oil (WENN biofuels can replace FFs)

2) Low energy intensity (WENN can alleviate this requirement)

3) A world population of 9 billion by year 2100 (Global economic stimulus from WENN expansion and increased commodities production may reduce pressure for larger families)

4) Use of croplands increase due to bio-energy production (Marine based WENN biofuel alleviates this factor)

5) More intensive animal husbandry (Marine protein from off-shore WENN aquaculture operations meets this requirement)

6) Methane emissions reduced by 40 per cent (Non-methane WENN biofuels can displace natural gas a.k.a. methane in the market)

7) CO2 emissions stay at today’s level until 2020, then decline and become negative in 2100 (The WENN Protocol can achieve this requirement)

8) CO2 concentrations peak around 2050, followed by a modest decline to around 400 ppm by 2100 (With aggressive WENN deployment, this requirement can be realized)


 


What are the plan’s key benefits?

What are other key benefits?

By establishing a universal WENN management paradigm, it may become possible to manage the global carbon cycle to the degree that we may prevent such environmentally catastrophic events such as:

-Arctic Methane Tipping Point (a)(b)(c)


-super cyclones

-severe droughts/El Nino/El Nina conditions

-Expansion of Low-Productivity Regions in Mid Ocean Gyres

At the socioeconomic level, the vast scale of the oceanic biomass production platforms represent a new form of Movable Artificial Islands which can be used to provide housing and jobs for displaced persons (a) and or for those simply wishing to earn entry level and middle class incomes

(Amnesty Int'l)

At the policy level, the above offers lowest risk options for managing many of the critical climate and socioeconomic problems we now face. And, the costs can be financed through the sale of Carbon  Investment Bonds (a) which may also function as a foundation for a unified international and US carbon price structure.


What are the plan’s costs?

Once mainstream production is established in the marine space, the time to profit can be as short as 3-5 years. Land WENN systems will take longer as the costs are higher; possibly 10-15 years. It is critical that the program be profitable at all levels. 

Although the production of a vast number of cultivation tanks/pipelines are required, the use of plastic material which can be made from bio-oil and post consumer plastic waste, such as HDPE, creates a scenario in which the greater the production of bio-oil and the conversion of waste plastic becomes, the cheaper the tanks/pipelines becomes.  

In summary: Once initial (relatively small scale) real world deployment of the WENN technology suite has been achieved and critically reviewed and accepted by the many potential funding actors, rapid expansion of a globally standardized WENN Protocol/STEM suite can be started around the planet.

The initial funding level for an investigational trial can be as low as $10M and take less than a year.

 


What are the key challenges to enacting this plan?

A successful climate change mitigation/adaptation strategy is largely contingent upon three critical factors:

1) STEM: the expected market performance of the technology suite;

2) Funding: the type and amount of funding which can support the deployment of the technology suite;

3) Governance: the type of technology largely determines how the governance function can function.  

Solving this three way paradox has been a central limiting factor within many past intergovernmental efforts (i.e. the Conference of the Parties) at reaching a unified climate change mitigation/adaptation strategy.

The WENN conceptual development focus is to reduce the complexities of the tech, funding and governance factors so as to provide a unified starting point for large scale deployment of known WENN technologies using currently available funding tools.

Effective governance can be achieved through a modified corporate franchise model which can be governed through the social benefit corporation structure.  

 


Timeline

The 5-15 year time frame can see an environmentally meaningful scale of WENN technology deployment and thus significant advancement toward the goal of achieving a carbon negative emissions scenario (i.e. RCP 2.6).

This optimism is based upon the facts that:

- The technology is deployable today;

- The funding is available;

- All nations can be a strong player;

- The eventual limit to expansion is only dictated by the vast sustainable carrying capacity of the marine environment.

- Even the smallest village can deploy this STEM with off-the-shelf HDPE tanks and a relatively simple compilation of ancillary components.

- The larger towns and cities can incorporate this suite of technology during routine road repairs or initial road construction or undertake coordinated conversion to the WENN tech package in association with other communities (Cities for Climate Protection program).

By 2050, critical mass acceptance of the WENN suite of technologies and funding paths may be universally established. 

 


Related plans

US Carbon Price: Assigning Carbon Value Through Utilization

Building a National HVDC Power Grid to enable renewable energy to get to...

Underwater Suspension Tunnels.

Marine BECCS (biofuel) Investment as Carbon Credit for Fossil Fuel Compa...

Expanding the Concept of Cap-n-Trade to Other Related Commodities

Electrify Interstate Highways

USG Leadership on MBECS Developement/Demand and Within International Tre...

Climate Action Plan

An Internalised Price on Carbon

Retrofit diesel engines with black carbon filters as a project cost

Green Impact Bonds - developing and financing our best and brightest ideas

(IPC)Phase out extraction of carbon-based fuels from public lands

Kick Starting A Global Transition To A Green Economy; Financing Climate ...

The Little Engine That Could: Revenue Neutral Carbon Fee and Dividend

Kick Starting A Global Transition To A Green Economy; Financing Climate ...


References

Please watch this NASA video while noting the primary point source of vast scale CO2 emissions from highly urbanized regions.

Methane Hydrates: Natural Hazard or Natural Resource? - Perspectives on Ocean Science: "Explore naturally occurring frozen methane deposits under the sea with renowned geochemist Miriam Kastner and discover whether or not they are a hazard to climate change".

The above video is a critical reality check for all involved in solving for the  mitigation/adaptation problem sets as it shows just how vulnerable we are to catastrophic climate change.

Due to the lack of space, I refer the reader to references within:

and 

 

 

 

 

 

 

baseProposalId=0