Carbon-dioxide is captured and stored by trees for several decades, but what if you could lengthen this storage? That’s exactly what happens here, lengthening the storage to centuries by simply putting the trees under the ground. In the soil the wooden piles are put well below the groundwater table, where they can be preserved in an anaerobic environment for over 500 years.
Additionally, these wooden piles act as great construction foundations. For example, the city of Venice was built on over a million of wooden piles. When pile driving is used, a long term foundation is created that can hold up different structures over time. The combined function of foundation and Carbon Dioxide Removal make this a multifaceted solution.
About the Remover
Arie Hogendoorn is the owner of a company that specializes in pile driving. When he planned to build a pavilion in the garden behind his house in Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel, he decided to create a foundation of wooden piles instead of concrete. The location lies in the waterlogged part of the Netherlands, with the first solid layer of sand being at 17 meters below ground level. Arie has driven 40 spruce poles of 16 meters length into the ground to support the wooden building and the surrounding paths.
Underground Forest
Underground Forest B.V. promotes carbon pile driving in high densities (4 piles per square meter) in waterlogged soils to create an ever lasting foundation that can hold up different structures over time and at the same time store carbon, so called underground forests. The carbon removed by the Underground Forest will be gone for a very long timescale without the need for management, or the sensitivity to wind, fire or looters.
Website
https://undergroundforest.nl/
Certification of Underground Forest projects is in progress. A limited number of development units based on conservative potential estimations have been emitted within the scope of this Development phase project. For details development units see oncra.org/guidelines