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Discussion of National Academies Study
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We have gathered that the National Academies of Science study on carbon dioxide removal is probably one of the most influential research docs in this space right now.
What would you say the strengths and weaknesses of that study are?
Additionally, what are the other key reports in the CDR space you would recommend and why?
Share any links, research documents, visualizations, or other resources that you have seen!
What would you say the strengths and weaknesses of that study are?
Additionally, what are the other key reports in the CDR space you would recommend and why?
Share any links, research documents, visualizations, or other resources that you have seen!
0
Comments
While I've got you here, some of these mineralization/advanced weathering systems sound very compelling, but an engineered solution remained "speculative," if I remember the wording correctly. Is that still the case or are people pursuing major demonstrations of in-situ combined capture and storage?
With regard to "speculative", that depends what you mean. There are plenty of good geological data. For instance, I would emphasize that natural peridotite systems sometimes achieve 100% carbonation, in which every single Mg and Ca atom gets together with CO2 to make carbonate minerals. And, there are other good data that demonstrate that individual, natural systems continue to consume dissolved CO2 in ground water, reacting with peridotite to form solid carbonates, for tens to hundreds of thousands of years, without clogging up or running out of solid reactants. And the lab kinetics data consistently indicate that carbon mineralization is fast when one of several abundant, rock forming minerals are present. All this said, there is no proof of concept at the scale of a pilot experiment like CarbFix, and in particular the issue of "clogging" vs "cracking" remains a possible show-stopper.
Indeed the NAS study mentions but does not elaborate at length on ocean storage options, and in particular those that could emphasize carbon mineralization. I'm not certain this is the point of your question or not, but if so, I might call your attention to previous work on feasibility and capability of sub-ocean storage options in basaltic lavas. No at-sea demonstrations have yet been conducted, however there is significant potential for scale-up and benefit in these environments, both via industrial and direct air capture solutions. Some background references include:
Goldberg, D., and A. L. Slagle. 2009. A global assessment of deep-sea basalt sites for carbon sequestration. Energy Procedia 1(1):3675-3682. DOI: https://org/10.1016/j.egypro.2009.02.165.
Goldberg, D. S., T. Takahashi, and A. L. Slagle. 2008. Carbon dioxide sequestration in deep-sea basalt. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(29):9920-9925. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0804397105.
Goldberg, D. S., D. V. Kent, and P. E. Olsen. 2010. Potential on-shore and o -shore reservoirs for CO2 sequestration in Central Atlantic magmatic province basalts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107(4):1327-1332. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913721107.
Goldberg, D., K. Lackner, P. Han, A. Slagle, and T. Wang, 2013, Co-location of air capture, sub-ocean CO2 sequestration, and energy production on the Kerguelen plateau, Environ. Sci. & Technol., 47(13), 7521-7529, doi:10.1021/es401531y.
Goldberg, D. and K. Lackner, 2015, Creating negative emissions at remote CO2 sequestration sites, Greenhouse Gases: Sci. & Technol., 5:1–3, doi: 10.1002/ghg.1489, available online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2152-3878/earlyview.
Snæbjörnsdóttir, S.Ó., F. Wiese, T. Fridriksson, H. Ármannsson, G.M. Einarsson, and S.R. Gislason. “CO2 storage potential of basaltic rocks
in Iceland and the oceanic ridges” Energy Procedia 63 (2014): 4585–4600.
Gutknecht, V., S.Ó., Snæbjörnsdóttir, B. Sigfússon, E. S. Aradóttir, and L. Charles. Creating a carbon dioxide removal solution by combining rapid
mineralization of CO2 with direct air capture"
Energy Procedia 146 (2018): 129-134.
the storage capacities of offshore basalt are estimated to be enormous (>100,000 Gtons CO2 worldwide) and offer permanent storage potential through mineralization. For CDR, this concept marries offshore basalt storage with DAC technology and renewable energy sources – only limited by the development of each these technologies in becoming efficient and economical, plus a real valuation on C removal from the atmosphere.
Sargassum blooms are causing huge problems on beaches around the Caribbean in particular. If it can be sunk efficiently to prevent it from reaching the beaches, the tourism industry could help pay the costs of doing it. The Cancún-Puerto Morelos hotels association has estimated that cleaning their beaches of sargassum will cost at least 700 million pesos (US $36.7 million) this year. One estimate says a million tons of sargassum can be expected on Mexicos beaches this year. Even the Mexican Navy will be fighting the problem.
Imagine autonomous solar/wind-powered ocean-going harvesters (hundreds of them?) that seek out, take on, and possibly shred sargassum to pop the air sacks that keep it afloat, or expose it to high-level UV light to kill it, or otherwise treat it and return it to the sea to sink.
Perhaps such equipment could be stationary, positioned strategically in ocean currents that bring the sargassum to them for processing.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/navy-will-head-up-strategy-to-combat-sargassum-invasion/