Experimental Study of Basalt Carbonatization

• Main Author: Stockmann, Gabrielle J.
• Other Authors: Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III, Eric H. Oelkers
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: Basaltic glass dissolution; Diopside dissolution; Calcium carbonate coatings; Calcite nucleation and precipitation; Heterotrophic bacteria; CO2 sequestration; Dissolution du verre basaltique; Dissolution du diopside; Revêtements de carbonate de calcium; Nucléation et précipitation de la calcite; Bactéries hétérotrophes; Pseudomonas reactans; Séquestration du CO2; CarbFix; [SDU.STU.GC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geochemistry; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Iceland; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00712597; https://theses.hal.science/tel-00712597/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-00712597/file/GJS_Thesis_May_2012_French.pdf

The increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and the potential dangers this pose to the Earth through climate change, ocean acidification and sea-level rise has lead to a substantial number of projects attempting to find a safe and benign way to capture and store CO2 in geological formations, also referred to as the CCS (Carbon Capture Storage) technology. One of these CCS attempts is currently taking place in Iceland at the geothermal power plant Hellisheiði, located close to the capital Reykjavik (the CarbFix project). CO2 and other gasses (H2S, N2, H2, CH4) are waste products of the geothermal energy exploitation and the aim is with time to store all of this anthropogenic-made CO2 in the basaltic formations underlying Hellisheiði. The CO2 is dissolved in groundwater as it is pumped down to 350 meters depth and then injected into mixed horizons of basaltic glass and crystalline basalt. The basaltic rocks are characterized by high contents of divalent cations like Mg2+, Fe2+ and Ca2+ and relatively fast dissolution rates. The acidic CO2-loaded water will dissolve the basalt thereby releasing cations, which can react with the aqueous carbonate ions to form carbonate minerals (magnesite, siderite, calcite, ankerite and Ca-Mg-Fe solid solutions). The rate-limiting step of this carbon sequestration process is thought to be the dissolution of basaltic rocks, thus any effect that could potentially limit basalt dissolution would be detrimental to the overall CO2 sequestration process. My part of the CarbFix project has been to look at the effects the formation of calcium carbonate coatings would have on the dissolution of the primary phase, in this case basaltic glass and the clinopyroxene diopside, so there would be a glass phase to compare with the results of a mineral phase. Furthermore, a series of experiments were conducted where we tested the primary mineral structure's affect on calcite nucleation. This was done in order to test if different silicate structures would lead to different extent of calcite ...