Combustion of Biomass as a Global Carbon Sink

Abstract

This note is intended to highlight the important role of black carbon produced from biomass burning in the global carbon cycle, and encourage further research in this area. Consideration of the fundamental physical chemistry of cellulose thermal decomposition suggests that suppression of biomass burning or biasing burning practices to produce soot-free flames must inevitably transfer more carbon to the atmosphere. A simple order-of-magnitude quantitative analysis indicates that black carbon may be a significant carbon reservoir that persists over geological time scales.