Researchers are exploring a way to optimize a natural carbon-capturing process, which could help reduce human-caused emissions.
Chemical weathering of silicate and carbonate rocks is a natural process that helps remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over millions of years by dissolving it in water. It’s an important way the Earth regulates CO2 levels, but it’s very slow. And at a certain point, the dissolved carbon solidifies into minerals that are less efficient at removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
In a paper recently published in , researchers examined the chemistry of water from lakes in British Columbia and identified the particular chemical conditions — known as the geochemical threshold — needed to keep the carbon dissolved.
“Determining the geochemical controls on magnesium carbonate formation in natural environments has been notoriously difficult. This study is a significant breakthrough,” says researcher Maija Raudsepp.
“It comes at a critical time as there is significant interest in the deployment of geochemical carbon dioxide removal (geoCDR) technologies. These new geochemical thresholds can be used to prevent carbonate precipitation and thus optimize geoCDR.”