Scientists have developed an affordable path to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by converting common minerals into high -reactive substances that spontaneously block the CO2.
This breakthrough could play a crucial role in the containment of global warming by dealing with one of his main causes.
The new technology was developed by chemists at Stanford University Matthew Kanan, professor of chemistry and senior author of the paper, explained the motivation behind the Carbon Capture Research.
“The earth has an inexhaustible supply of minerals that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but they just don't react quickly enough to counter the human greenhouse gas emissions. Our work solves this problem in a way that we consider uniquely scalable. “
Fast carbon removal with new chemistry
In nature, silicate minerals gradually bind through weathering with CO2 and form stable carbonates over hundreds or thousands of years.
Researchers worldwide have long searched for methods to accelerate this slow process, which is often referred to as improved weathering.
The postdoctoral of Kanan and Stanford, Yuxuan Chen, found a way to make silicates quickly, thanks to what chen calls “new chemistry”.
“We introduced ourselves to a new chemistry to activate the inert silicate minerals through a simple ion exchange reaction,” said Chen, who led the laboratory work. “We didn't expect it to work as well as it.”
Due to the acceleration of mineral reactions that would otherwise develop over centuries, this approach can remove considerable amounts of carbon dioxide from the air in a fraction of the time.
More efficient mineral transformation
Existing strategies for removing carbon removal and the direct air intake often based on energy-intensive devices, including large fans, chemicals and other methods to filter out CO2. They can be costly and difficult to scale. In contrast, the Stanford scientists indicate the energy savings of their approach.
“Our process would require less than half of the energy used by leading direct air recording technologies, and we think the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
In their experiments, the team with calcium oxide heated in a kiln with calcium oxide (calcium carbonate) and then combined this material with magnesium with silicate minerals.
When the two substances were heated together, they exchanged ions and showed magnesium oxide and calcium silicate – both that easily absorb carbon from the air.
“The process acts as a multiplier,” said Kanan. “They take a reactive mineral, calcium oxide and a magnesium silicate that is more or less inert, and they create two reactive minerals.”
Catch carbon with simple chemistry
Cement manufacturers have been using ovens and processing limestone at high temperatures for centuries to create important ingredients for concrete. The Stanford method adapts this proven approach, but replaces part of the cement mixture with magnesium silicates.
If these newly formed minerals are exposed to water and carbon dioxide – even with the relatively low concentrations in ambient air – they spontaneously convert CO2 into stable carbonates.
Laboratory tests showed that wet rehearsals of magnesium oxide and calcium silicate were able to catch carbon in weeks to months, which far exceeds natural weathering.
“You can imagine spreading magnesium oxide and calcium silicate over large land areas to remove CO2 from ambient air,” said Kanan.
“An exciting application that we are now testing is to add it to agricultural soil. As they survive, the minerals turn into bicarbonates that move through the floor and are permanently stored in the ocean. “
Potential advantages for farmers
The soil treatment usually includes calcium carbonate (lime) to increase the pH value when it is too acid. In principle, farmers were able to switch to these new reactive minerals instead of conventional lime.
“Adding our product would eliminate the need for a lime, since both mineral components are alkaline,” said Kanan.
“As a calcium silica weather, it fills silicon in a form that can absorb the plants, which can improve the harvest yields and resilience. Ideally, farmers would pay for these minerals because they are an advantage for the productivity of agriculture and the health of the soil – and as a bonus there is carbon removal. “
Scaling for global effects
According to Kanan's team, production would have to increase to a sensible size that has to convert millions of tons of silicate minerals every year.
“Every year, more than 400 million tons of mines are generated with suitable silicates worldwide, which represents a potentially large source of raw materials,” said Chen.
“It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 gigatons olivine and serpentine reserves on earth, enough to remove far more CO2 than people have ever emitted.”
CO2 solution of nature
After the researchers have taken into account the emissions from heating stoves with natural gas or biofuels, the researchers estimate that each ton of their final material can remove a ton of CO2 from the atmosphere.
For the context, the fossil fuel emissions of carbon dioxide exceeded 37 billion tons in 2024, which shows the oppressive need for large -scale solutions.
“The company has already found out how they can produce billions of tons of cement per year, and cement furnaces run for decades,” said Kanan. “If we use these findings and designs, there is a clear way of changing from laboratory discovery to CO2 removal in a meaningful scale.”
In cooperation with the Associate Professor Jonathan Fan from Electrical Engineering, work on the development of electric oven is also underway.
If successful, this innovation could reduce or eliminate the CO2 footprint of the heating process and further increase the climate parts.
Through the combination of well-established industrial methods with a new chemical reaction, this approach could offer a promising and relatively inexpensive way to deduct billions of co2 from the atmosphere-and contribute to alleviating the accelerating effects of climate change.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
Photo credits: Renhour48 about Wikimedia
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