A dream solution is that humans could develop a way to suck as much CO2 from the atmosphere as we release, and combined with greenhouse gas emission reductions, we could slow or reverse the tide of climate change.
Scientists have found a way to rapidly create the mineral magnesite in a lab both inexpensively and potentially at scale. This could be coupled with carbon sequestration, a process in which carbon is injected and stored underground, typically in depleted oil and gas fields. Reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere can be both a result of reducing input as well as increasing output of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The research was presented recently at the Goldschmidt conference in Boston by Professor Ian Power of Trent University, Ontario, Canada. Their findings outline a novel way to rapidly produce magnesite inexpensively and at room temperature, allowing for the expansion of the process to an industrial scale.
If implemented at scale, the potential for another tool of CO2 removal via magnesite becomes a possibility, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it long-term in the mineral magnesite.
Below is a breakdown of the potential chemical reaction by which carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere to create magnesite.
CO2+ H2O→H2CO3→ H++ HCO3−
Mg+2+HCO3− →MgCO3+H+
To explain the above equations, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is injected into water, which is then dissociated to form carbonic acid. From there, elemental magnesium combines with the carbonic acid to form magnesite (MgCO3).
At this time, most carbon capture and storage options are difficult to implement at scale due to high costs and difficulties scaling. With this new method, however, the rate of magnesite formation goes from hundreds to thousands of years in nature to within 72 days in a lab and at low temperatures.
Based on previous studies, magnesite can remove about half its weight in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Estimates put our current CO2 emissions at about 40 billion tons per year. That would mean to remove the equivalent amount of carbon emitted per year solely through magnesite formation, 80 billion tons would have to be produced per year. It becomes increasingly apparent that this cannot be the only lever we pull in mitigating climate change.
By speeding up the process, magnesite could be a legitimate resource for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the research is still in an experimental phase and will need to be continually tested before it could ever be implemented at industrial scales. In addition, the process will rely on the current price of carbon and financial incentives to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
