Under CarbFix Project Iceland scientists turn CO2 into Stone
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Under CarbFix Project Iceland scientists turn CO2 into Stone
Scientists of Iceland found a technique to capture and store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep underground by turning it into rock.
The technique will provide a safer, faster way to sequester CO2 and limit global warming. And it was identified it as a potentially significant way to combat climate change.
This method of the speedy carbonation could be a viable way to store CO2 underground permanently and without risk of leakage.
Finding of the Research
- Scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and other institutions tested the technique as part of a pilot program called the CarbFix project. It was launched in 2012 at the Hellisheidi power plant in Iceland.
- The Scientists injected 220 tons of CO2 into layers of basalt between
- 400 and 800 meters below the surface. They also added extra water to react with the gas to form a key driver of mineral reactions, carbonic acid.
- It triggered a reaction that rapidly forms new carbonate minerals, potentially locking up the gas forever.
- Within two years, 95 percent of the carbon injected into the basalt below the plant had solidified into stone.
- The process requires a significant amount of water 25 tons for every ton of CO2 which will become a hurdle in some parts of the world.
- The technique has to clear such high hurdles to become commercially viable.
About Carbon Sequestration
- It means capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or capturing anthropogenic (human) CO2 from large-scale stationary sources like power plants before it is released to the atmosphere.
- Once captured, the CO2 gas (or the carbon portion of the CO2) is put into long-term storage.
- Geologic Sequestration
- Geologic sequestration is putting CO 2 into long-term storage in geologic zones deep underground.
- Many projects around the world have sought to test carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of curbing CO2 emissions from power plants. Very few have been scaled up, owing to prohibitive costs, estimated at 50 to 100 dollars per ton of
- CO2 sequestered.