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Improved net carbon budgets in the US Midwest through direct measured impacts of enhanced weathering

Ilsa B. Kantola, Elena Blanc-Betes, Michael D. Masters, Elliot Chang, Alison Marklein, Caitlin E. Moore, Adam von Haden, Carl J. Bernacchi, Adam Wolf, Dimitar Z. Epihov, David J. Beerling, Evan H. DeLucia Abstract Terrestrial enhanced weathering (EW) through the application of Mg- or Ca- rich rock dust to soil is a negative emission technology with the potential to address impacts of climate change. The effectiveness of EW was tested over 4 years by spreading ground basalt (50 t ha−1 year−1) on maize/soybean and miscanthus cropping systems in the Midwest US. The major elements of the carbon budget were quantified through ...

Enhanced clay formation key in sustaining the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum

Alexander J. Krause, Appy Sluijs, Robin van der Ploeg, Timothy M. Lenton & Philip A. E. Pogge von Strandmann Abstract The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (around 40 million years ago) was a roughly 400,000-year-long global warming phase associated with an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and deep-ocean acidification that interrupted the Eocene’s long-term cooling trend. The unusually long duration, compared with early Eocene global warming phases, is puzzling as temperature-dependent silicate weathering should have provided a negative feedback, drawing down CO2 over this timescale. Here we investigate silicate weathering during this ...

Constraining the Potential of Land-Based Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) From a Data-Driven Perspective

Rafael M. Santos, Francisco Araujo, Hiral Jariwala, Reza Khalidy, Fatima Haque and Yi Wai Chiang Introduction Enhanced rock weathering (ERW), as a negative emissions technology for climate change mitigation, has received far more public, governmental, and academic attention (according to the authors’ account of engagement with such actors) in the past year than in the many years since its first mention in the literature. The term ERW was conceived by Beerling (2017), but the field of research referred to as “enhanced weathering” (EW) can see its origins, by this name, at least as far back as the works of Power and Southam (2005) and ...

The Mining Industry’s Role in Enhanced Weathering and Mineralization for CO2 Removal

Ian M. Power, Carlos Paulo, Kwon Rausis Abstract Enhanced weathering and mineralization (EWM) aim to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere by accelerating the reaction of this greenhouse gas with alkaline minerals. This suite of geochemical negative emissions technologies has the potential to achieve CO2 removal rates of >1 gigatonne per year, yet will require gigatonnes of suitable rock. As a supplier of rock powder, the mining industry will be at the epicenter of the global implementation of EWM. Certain alkaline mine wastes sequester CO2 under conventional mining conditions, which should be quantified across the industry. Furtherm...

Pathways, roundabouts, roadblocks, and shortcuts to safe and sustainable deployment of enhanced rock weathering in agriculture

Rafael M. Santos, Francisco Araujo, Hiral Jariwala, Reza Khalidy, Fatima Haque and Yi Wai Chiang Introduction Enhanced rock weathering (ERW), as a negative emissions technology for climate change mitigation, has received far more public, governmental, and academic attention (according to the authors’ account of engagement with such actors) in the past year than in the many years since its first mention in the literature. The term ERW was conceived by Beerling (2017), but the field of research referred to as “enhanced weathering” (EW) can see its origins, by this name, at least as far back as the works of Power and Southam (2005) and Lenton ...

Improving food security and farmland carbon sequestration in China through enhanced rock weathering: Field evidence and potential assessment in different humid regions

Fuxing Guo, Haowei Sun, Jing Yang, Linsen Zhang, Yan Mu, Yanping Wang, Fuyong Wu Abstract\ Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) in farmland is an emerging carbon dioxide removal technology with crushed silicate rocks for soil improvement. However, due to climatic variability and field data limitations, uncertainties remain regarding the influence of ERW on food security and soil carbon pools in temperate regions. This study focused to evaluate the crop productivity and carbon sequestration potential of farmland ERW in China by conducting field monitoring in different humid regions and ERW performance model. Additionally, the contribution of climate, ...

Quantifying the effect of grain size on weathering of basaltic powders: Implications for negative emission technologies via soil carbon sequestration

Elizabeth Vanderkloot, Peter Ryan Abstract Weathering of basaltic powders was studied experimentally at 35 °C in dilute solutions of oxalic acid and carbonic acid to assess the effect of grain size and reactive surface area for materials under consideration for carbon dioxide reduction (CDR) by enhanced rock weathering (ERW). The basalts chosen for this study (with their mineralogical compositions) are the Blue Ridge (BR) meta-basalt (chlorite > epidote > plagioclase > actinolite) and Pioneer Valley (PV) basalt (plagioclase > augite > quartz > chlorite). Powders of BR and PV basalts were sieved into 150 μm fractions, and experiments were ...

Enhanced weathering in the U.S. Corn Belt delivers carbon removal with agronomic benefits

David J. Beerling, Dimitar Z. Epihov, Ilsa B. Kantola, Michael D. Masters, Tom Reershemius, Noah J. Planavsky, Christopher T. Reinhard, Jacob S. Jordan, Sarah J. Thorne1, James Weber, Maria Val Martin, Robert P. Freckleton, Sue E. Hartley, Rachael H. James, Christopher R. Pearce, Evan H. DeLucia, Steven A. Banwart Abstract Enhanced weathering (EW) with crushed basalt on farmlands is a promising scalable atmospheric carbon dioxide removal strategy that urgently requires performance assessment with commercial farming practices. Our large-scale replicated EW field trial in the heart of the U.S. Corn Belt shows cumulative time integrated carbon ...

Basalt addition improves the performance of young grassland monocultures under more persistent weather featuring longer dry and wet spells

Simon Reynaert, Arthur Vienne, Hans J De Boeck, Tommy D'Hose, Ivan Janssens, Ivan Nijs, Miguel Portillo-Estrada, Erik Verbruggen, Sara Vicca, Sílvia Poblador Abstract Global warming is altering the intra-annual variability of precipitation patterns in the mid-latitudes, including a shift towards longer dry and wet spells compared to historic averages. Such fluctuations will likely alter soil water and nutrient dynamics of managed ecosystems which could negatively influence their functioning (e.g., productivity and fodder quality). Here, we investigated whether basalt addition could attenuate effects of increasingly persistent precipitation ...

Optimizing Inorganic Carbon Sequestration and Crop Yield With Wollastonite Soil Amendment in a Microplot Study

Fatima Haque, Rafael M. Santos, Yi Wai Chiang Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas, and its concentration in the atmosphere is increasing continuously, hence there is an urgent need to reduce its level in the atmosphere. Soils offer a large natural sink to store CO2. This study focuses on sequestering CO2 in the agricultural soils as inorganic carbon, which can be accomplished by adding alkaline-earth silicates. Wollastonite is used in this study as a soil amendment, to sequester CO2 via the geochemical route of mineral carbonation. The first objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of mixing a wide range of ...