How to Turn Carbon Dioxide into Rock and Bury It Forever (Hopefully)

What do we do with a problem like C dioxide ? We want to take out the overindulgence from our atmosphere , but how ? In Iceland , geologist are swallow the greenhouse flatulency with water , so that canonical chemistry can turn it into solid rock inside whatthe New York Times calls“a geological soda machine . ”

Storing carbon paper dioxide underground is not a new idea , but CarbFix in Iceland use an unique approach . Conventionally , liquid carbon dioxide is shoot into porous rock’n’roll — like atSleipner in Norway — where we go for the carbon dioxide will ( eventually ) turn into carbonate mineral after M or tens of thousands of years . Over that retentive stint of fourth dimension , the pressurized gas could escape through fissure into the aura , leave us right back where we started .

CarbFix wants to speed up the process of mineralization , using something as simple as weewee . But piles of it . Carbonated water is acid — just like your Diet Coke hence the wonderful phrase “ geologic soda machine”—which help release elements like calcium with which carbon dioxide can react . In Iceland ’s volcanic fields , the atomic number 6 dioxide is throw in into basalt , where it should call on to calcite .

Amazon Arzopa

CarbFix begin their first test airfield injection in 2012 , and they ’re now analyzing their cores of rock for calcite . They ’ve also scaled up their operations to interpose 10,000 slews of carbon paper dioxide captured from a nearby power flora each twelvemonth . It appears promising , but there is a bountiful dollar sign hanging out next to a question German mark over everything . The Times explainswhy :

But injecting huge amounts of body of water along with the CO2 — 25 tons of liquidity for each net ton of gas — adds to the monetary value . CarbFix scientists have approximate that transportation and injection could cost about $ 17 per gross ton of CO2 , about twice the cost of transporting and injecting the gaseous state alone . ( These cost are on top of the much higher costs of capturing and part CO2 from a power plant smokestack . )

Without economical bonus , energy companies have no reasonableness to invest in bury their atomic number 6 dioxide with water supply , specially if there are other cheesy solutions . The sarcasm , though , is that over tens of thousands of years , CarbFix ’s solution might actually be cheap if it truly works as promised without leaking . But we humans are not so good at thinking in decade of thousands of old age . [ New York Times ]

Sonos Speaker Move 2