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Isn't it 20% of sequestered carbon, not CO2?

Burning that carbon to CO2 requires oxygen, which will deplete the atmospheric reservoir to some degree.



But isn’t there oxygen in the organic materials of the tree?


I think the oxygen in the tree materials is already combined with carbon in the form of CxHyOz hydrocarbons, where x,y,z = atoms of the respective atomic species.

Burning cellulose (poly-C6 H10 O5) to CO2 and H2O would require (for each molecule): 12O (for 6CO2) and 5O (for 5H2O). This is a total of 17O.

Cellulose contains only 5O, so 12O (or 6O2) would be required for a full stoichiometric burn of cellulose.




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