Climate Change Mitigation through Enhanced Weathering in Bioenergy Crops

Kantola, I. B., Masters, M. D., Wolz, K. J., DeLucia, E. H. Abstract Bioenergy crops are a renewable alternative to fossil fuels that reduce the net flux of CO2 to the atmosphere through carbon sequestration in plant tissues and soil. A portion of the remaining atmospheric CO2 is naturally mitigated by the chemical weathering of silica minerals, which sequester carbon as carbonates. The process of mineral weathering can be enhanced by crushing the minerals to increase surface area and applying them to agricultural soils, where warm temperatures, moisture, and plant roots and root exudates accelerate the weathering process. The carbonate byprod...

Farming with Crops and Rocks to Address Global Climate, Food and Soil Security

David J. Beerling, Jonathan R. Leake, Stephen P. Long, Julie D. Scholes, Jurriaan Ton, Paul N. Nelson, Michael Bird, Euripides Kantzas, Lyla L. Taylor, Binoy Sarkar, Mike Kelland, Evan DeLucia, Ilsa Kantola, Christoph Müller, Greg Rau & James Hansen Abstract The magnitude of future climate change could be moderated by immediately reducing the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere as a result of energy generation and by adopting strategies that actively remove CO2 from it. Biogeochemical improvement of soils by adding crushed, fast-reacting silicate rocks to croplands is one such CO2-removal strategy. This approach has the potential to ...

Farming with crops and rocks to address global climate, food and soil security

David J. Beerling, Jonathan R. Leake, Stephen P. Long, Julie D. Scholes, Jurriaan Ton, Paul N. Nelson, Michael Bird, Euripides Kantzas, Lyla L. Taylor, Binoy Sarkar, Mike Kelland, Evan DeLucia, Ilsa Kantola, Christoph Müller, Greg Rau & James Hansen Abstract The magnitude of future climate change could be moderated by immediately reducing the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere as a result of energy generation and by adopting strategies that actively remove CO2 from it. Biogeochemical improvement of soils by adding crushed, fast-reacting silicate rocks to croplands is one such CO2-removal strategy. This approach has the potential to improve ...