Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks
The chemical weathering of rocks currently absorbs about 1.1 Gt CO2 a−1 being mainly stored as bicarbonate in the ocean. An enhancement of this slow natural process could remove substantial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, aiming to offset some unavoidable anthropogenic emissions in order to comp...
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ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:y0miqIgBdbrxVwz6B-nG 2023-07-02T03:33:23+02:00 Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks Strefler, Jessica Amann, Thorben Bauer, Nico Kriegler, Elmar Hartmann, Jens 2018 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.34657/352 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/3785 eng eng Bristol : IOP Publishing CC BY 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Environmental Research Letters, Volume 13, Issue 3 1.5 C carbon dioxide removal climate change enhanced weathering negative emissions supply curve 500 article Text 2018 ftleibnizopen https://doi.org/10.34657/352 2023-06-11T23:17:17Z The chemical weathering of rocks currently absorbs about 1.1 Gt CO2 a−1 being mainly stored as bicarbonate in the ocean. An enhancement of this slow natural process could remove substantial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, aiming to offset some unavoidable anthropogenic emissions in order to comply with the Paris Agreement, while at the same time it may decrease ocean acidification. We provide the first comprehensive assessment of economic costs, energy requirements, technical parameterization, and global and regional carbon removal potential. The crucial parameters defining this potential are the grain size and weathering rates. The main uncertainties about the potential relate to weathering rates and rock mass that can be integrated into the soil. The discussed results do not specifically address the enhancement of weathering through microbial processes, feedback of geogenic nutrient release, and bioturbation. We do not only assess dunite rock, predominantly bearing olivine (in the form of forsterite) as the mineral that has been previously proposed to be best suited for carbon removal, but focus also on basaltic rock to minimize potential negative side effects. Our results show that enhanced weathering is an option for carbon dioxide removal that could be competitive already at 60 US $ t−1 CO2 removed for dunite, but only at 200 US $ t−1 CO2 removed for basalt. The potential carbon removal on cropland areas could be as large as 95 Gt CO2 a−1 for dunite and 4.9 Gt CO2 a−1 for basalt. The best suited locations are warm and humid areas, particularly in India, Brazil, South-East Asia and China, where almost 75% of the global potential can be realized. This work presents a techno-economic assessment framework, which also allows for the incorporation of further processes. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
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LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
op_collection_id |
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language |
English |
topic |
1.5 C carbon dioxide removal climate change enhanced weathering negative emissions supply curve 500 |
spellingShingle |
1.5 C carbon dioxide removal climate change enhanced weathering negative emissions supply curve 500 Strefler, Jessica Amann, Thorben Bauer, Nico Kriegler, Elmar Hartmann, Jens Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
topic_facet |
1.5 C carbon dioxide removal climate change enhanced weathering negative emissions supply curve 500 |
description |
The chemical weathering of rocks currently absorbs about 1.1 Gt CO2 a−1 being mainly stored as bicarbonate in the ocean. An enhancement of this slow natural process could remove substantial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, aiming to offset some unavoidable anthropogenic emissions in order to comply with the Paris Agreement, while at the same time it may decrease ocean acidification. We provide the first comprehensive assessment of economic costs, energy requirements, technical parameterization, and global and regional carbon removal potential. The crucial parameters defining this potential are the grain size and weathering rates. The main uncertainties about the potential relate to weathering rates and rock mass that can be integrated into the soil. The discussed results do not specifically address the enhancement of weathering through microbial processes, feedback of geogenic nutrient release, and bioturbation. We do not only assess dunite rock, predominantly bearing olivine (in the form of forsterite) as the mineral that has been previously proposed to be best suited for carbon removal, but focus also on basaltic rock to minimize potential negative side effects. Our results show that enhanced weathering is an option for carbon dioxide removal that could be competitive already at 60 US $ t−1 CO2 removed for dunite, but only at 200 US $ t−1 CO2 removed for basalt. The potential carbon removal on cropland areas could be as large as 95 Gt CO2 a−1 for dunite and 4.9 Gt CO2 a−1 for basalt. The best suited locations are warm and humid areas, particularly in India, Brazil, South-East Asia and China, where almost 75% of the global potential can be realized. This work presents a techno-economic assessment framework, which also allows for the incorporation of further processes. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Strefler, Jessica Amann, Thorben Bauer, Nico Kriegler, Elmar Hartmann, Jens |
author_facet |
Strefler, Jessica Amann, Thorben Bauer, Nico Kriegler, Elmar Hartmann, Jens |
author_sort |
Strefler, Jessica |
title |
Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
title_short |
Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
title_full |
Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
title_fullStr |
Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
title_full_unstemmed |
Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
title_sort |
potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks |
publisher |
Bristol : IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.34657/352 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/3785 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Volume 13, Issue 3 |
op_rights |
CC BY 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.34657/352 |
_version_ |
1770273304323555328 |