How much room is needed to store all the biomass?

We are planning to store biomass aboveground in a modular system of stackable plastic containers. Aboveground storage is fast, easy, and surprisingly compact. For example, in a stack that's 25 meters tall, we can store 100,000 dry tons of wood waste (180,000 tons CO2e) on just 2.5 acres. Using 25 meter stacks, we can store 3 gigatons of biomass on less than 0.001% of Earth’s land area or on less than 0.01% of Earth’s desert land area.

How can biomass decomposition be prevented?

There are many examples, in nature and in archaeology, of dead wood that has been passively preserved for millennia under the right environmental conditions. These conditions are sufficiently dry, sufficiently wet and anoxic, sufficiently saline, and/or outside the optimal temperature window for decomposition. Such conditions inhibit the fungal and microbial activity that causes wood to decay. We will prevent wood from decomposing by storing it in a dry environment, and we have performed proof-of-concept experiments which show that decomposition can be prevented in dry wood.

Where will you get the biomass?

We will obtain waste biomass from forest thinning operations, during which excess biomass is removed from forests to reduce the statistical risk of catastrophic wildfires. The state of California alone currently thins at least 250,000 acres of forest per year, yielding more than 20 dry tons of wood waste per acre.

Does forest thinning weaken/harm the forest ecosystem?

No. In fact, public officials have come to understand that forest thinning is essential for healthy forests. For example, the combination of fire suppression efforts and lack of forest thinning in California has resulted in increasingly dangerous wildfires that are destroying thousands of homes, burning millions of acres and releasing vast amounts of carbon every year. Forest thinning is the best tool we have to bring that wildfire problem under control.

What if some of the biomass decomposes?

Previous scientific research, as well as our own demonstrations, show that biomass does not measurably decompose when kept sufficiently dry. However, even if some biomass decomposes in storage, CO2 will still be sequestered because less biomass will decompose under dry conditions than if left to decay in its native environment. Inhibiting decomposition increases the residence time of the carbon in the biomass, which means we still achieve a net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.