Under an Iceland-based pilot project called CarbFix—designed and carried out with Columbia leadership—researchers proved that basaltic rock units react rapidly with CO2 captured from a power plant. The team mixed gasses generated by the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant with water and reinjected the solution into the volcanic basalt below. In nature, when basalt is exposed to carbon dioxide and water, a series of natural chemical reactions takes place, and the carbon precipitates out into whitish, chalky minerals—carbonates. But before CarbFix, no one knew how fast this might happen if the process were harnessed for carbon storage. Previous studies had estimated that in most rocks, it would take hundreds or even thousands of years. In the basalt below Hellisheidi, 95 percent of the injected carbon was fixed as carbonates within less than two years. This proof of concept was an important step.
“Now it’s all about scale,” said Goldberg.
CarbFix currently injects and stores about 10,000 tons of CO2 per year in solid carbonate minerals, below the land surface near the power plant. Looking to scale-up this process, Goldberg and colleagues seek to capture millions of tons of CO2 from more distant industrial sources—such as fossil fuel power plants, manufacturing plants, and refineries—and inject it into submarine basalts off the coast of Washington and Oregon.
With the Solid Carbon project, the team aims to conduct offshore geophysical surveys, study the basalt reservoir, and set up a pilot injection and monitoring experiment at a site in Cascadia, at approximately the scale of the CarbFix project in Iceland.
“The big idea is to get this demonstration project funded and completed,” said Goldberg. “But the even bigger picture is to then scale this up and establish a climate solution that allows for direct capture of CO2 from ambient air with permanent offshore storage. So, once these carbon capture and undersea technologies are successfully demonstrated together, we can multiply the process in many locations and really make a difference.”
Clearing the Air:
Lamont’s Decarbonization Technologies Take a Giant Step Forward
GAME CHANGER
Off-Shore Decarbonization
Another of Lamont’s decarbonization breakthrough processes involves technologies with the ability to capture and turn CO2 into stone.
Geophysicist David Goldberg, and Lamont’s Deputy Director as of July 2021, has been involved in recent projects that have demonstrated that when you inject CO2 and water into basalt rock, the silicate material takes up the gas and turns it into carbonate rock. If this natural process can be enhanced, scientists believe it could be a valuable tool to solve the crisis-level airborne carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere.
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GAME CHANGER
Off-Shore Decarbonization
Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels today are higher than at any point in the past 800,000 years or more.
During a year when terms like carbon neutrality and net zero have become more and more commonly used, it appears the world is waking up to the imperative underscored in every high-level climate assessment—humanity needs to make a drastic change to stem the most catastrophic climate change consequences.
Climate impacts are happening more quickly than many scientists had predicted. Greenhouse gases are making the planet hotter. That rise in temperature is disrupting the weather and climate system in profound and cascading ways. For example, the western United States’ unprecedented drought has set up this region for devastating consecutive fire seasons. The rise in temperature triggers the air to hold more moisture, creating conditions for record breaking rainfall in the northeast, intensifying hurricanes, flooding neighborhoods, and threatening communities. The warmer temperature is also disrupting food webs. In the Arabian Sea, a strangely resilient and previously rare plankton species has ravaged the fishing industry.
Another of Lamont’s decarbonization breakthrough processes involves technologies with the ability to capture and turn CO2 into stone.
Geophysicist David Goldberg, and Lamont’s Deputy Director as of July 2021, has been involved in recent projects that have demonstrated that when you inject CO2 and water into basalt rock, the silicate material takes up the gas and turns it into carbonate rock. If this natural process can be enhanced, scientists believe it could be a valuable tool to solve the crisis-level airborne carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere.
Under an Iceland-based pilot project called CarbFix—designed and carried out with Columbia leadership—researchers proved that basaltic rock units react rapidly with CO2 captured from a power plant. The team mixed gasses generated by the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant with water and reinjected the solution into the volcanic basalt below. In nature, when basalt is exposed to carbon dioxide and water, a series of natural chemical reactions takes place, and the carbon precipitates out into whitish, chalky minerals—carbonates. But before CarbFix, no one knew how fast this might happen if the process were harnessed for carbon storage. Previous studies had estimated that in most rocks, it would take hundreds or even thousands of years. In the basalt below Hellisheidi, 95 percent of the injected carbon was fixed as carbonates within less than two years. This proof of concept was an important step.
“Now it’s all about scale,” said Goldberg.
CarbFix currently injects and stores about 10,000 tons of CO2 per year in solid carbonate minerals, below the land surface near the power plant. Looking to scale-up this process, Goldberg and colleagues seek to capture millions of tons of CO2 from more distant industrial sources—such as fossil fuel power plants, manufacturing plants, and refineries—and inject it into submarine basalts off the coast of Washington and Oregon.
With the Solid Carbon project, the team aims to conduct offshore geophysical surveys, study the basalt reservoir, and set up a pilot injection and monitoring experiment at a site in Cascadia, at approximately the scale of the CarbFix project in Iceland.
“The big idea is to get this demonstration project funded and completed,” said Goldberg. “But the even bigger picture is to then scale this up and establish a climate solution that allows for direct capture of CO2 from ambient air with permanent offshore storage. So, once these carbon capture and undersea technologies are successfully demonstrated together, we can multiply the process in many locations and really make a difference.”
Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels today are higher than at any point in the past 800,000 years or more.
During a year when terms like carbon neutrality and net zero have become more and more commonly used, it appears the world is waking up to the imperative underscored in every high-level climate assessment—humanity needs to make a drastic change to stem the most catastrophic climate change consequences.
Climate impacts are happening more quickly than many scientists had predicted. Greenhouse gases are making the planet hotter. That rise in temperature is disrupting the weather and climate system in profound and cascading ways. For example, the western United States’ unprecedented drought has set up this region for devastating consecutive fire seasons. The rise in temperature triggers the air to hold more moisture, creating conditions for record breaking rainfall in the northeast, intensifying hurricanes, flooding neighborhoods, and threatening communities. The warmer temperature is also disrupting food webs. In the Arabian Sea, a strangely resilient and previously rare plankton species has ravaged the fishing industry.
CLEARING THE AIR:
LAMONT’S DECARBONIZATION TECHNOLOGIES TAKE A GIANT STEP FORWARD
Donate today to SUPPORT LAMONT SCIENCE
GIVE TODAY
Writer/Editor: Marie DeNoia Aronsohn I Contributing Editors: Tara Spinelli and Marian Mellin I Contributing Writer: John Palmer I Design: Carmen Neal
Columbia Climate School Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Annual Report FY2021
© 2021 by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. All rights reserved.
Writer/Editor: Marie DeNoia Aronsohn
Contributing Editors: Tara Spinelli and Marian Mellin
Contributing Writer: John Palmer
Design: Carmen Neal
Columbia Climate School Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Annual Report FY2021
© 2021 by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. All rights reserved.