Basalt's Dual Magic: Capturing Carbon While Producing Hydrogen

A groundbreaking technology is emerging that harnesses the power of basalt, a globally abundant volcanic rock, to tackle two of humanity's most pressing challenges: climate change and clean energy production. This innovative approach promises to simultaneously sequester carbon dioxide and generate hydrogen, a clean fuel source.

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Carbon dioxide is now a boomerang that is suffocating the Earth's breath.

The core principle relies on natural oxidation-reduction reactions. When water laden with carbon dioxide, akin to carbonated water, is injected into basalt formations, the iron within the rock dissolves. This process oxidizes the iron and, crucially, converts hydrogen ions in the water into hydrogen gas. While plain water struggles to dissolve basalt, the slightly acidic CO2-infused water effectively leaches metallic components like iron. The process requires high temperatures and pressures to facilitate the dissolution of basalt and the dissolution of CO2 in water, respectively.

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The process involves injecting CO2-rich water into basalt formations, where the rock's iron reacts to produce hydrogen gas while the CO2 is mineralized into solid carbonates.

Simultaneously, calcium and magnesium from the basalt react with the dissolved CO2 to form solid carbonate minerals, effectively locking the carbon underground. This elegant mechanism results in carbon being buried while hydrogen is produced. Research from Wuhan University in China showed that increasing the reaction temperature from room temperature to 60 degrees Celsius boosted hydrogen production rates by over 51 times, with the CO2 being permanently stored as carbonates. Over three months, 41.7 kg of CO2 per ton of basalt was sequestered.

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Increasing the reaction temperature to 60 degrees Celsius boosted hydrogen production speed by more than 51 times.

Further advancements are being made globally. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have introduced a catalyst, nickel chloride, to accelerate the chemical reactions. Experiments under high pressure (12-17 times atmospheric pressure) and 90 degrees Celsius demonstrated that both carbon sequestration and hydrogen extraction are feasible even from basalt, which was previously considered difficult. The team believes that achieving just 1% efficiency could make the process commercially viable. Meanwhile, Icelandic researchers and the climate tech company Carbfix have shown that hydrogen and methane can be produced alongside carbon sequestration using seawater and basalt from the seabed, even at a relatively low temperature of 50 degrees Celsius. This method overcomes the significant freshwater usage of previous techniques.

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If efficiency can be increased to 1%, it is considered to have practical usability.