111 results for group: climate-change

Assessing the potential of soil carbonation and enhanced weathering through Life Cycle Assessment: A case study for Sao Paulo State, Brazil

David Lefebvre, Pietro Goglio, Adrian Williams, David A.C.Manning, Antonio Carlosde Azevedo, Magda Bergmann, Jeroen Meersmans, Pete Smith Abstract Enhanced silicate rock weathering for long-term carbon dioxide sequestration has considerable potential, but depends on the availability of suitable rocks coupled with proximity to suitable locations for field application. In this paper, we investigate the established mining industry that extracts basaltic rocks for construction from the Parana Basin, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Through a Life Cycle Assessment, we determine the balance of carbon dioxide emissions involved in the use of this ...

Rock dust, crop nutrition and climate change

Soils are the interface between the geosphere and the biosphere. They provide the minerals required for crop nutrition, and they regulate atmospheric CO2 to a greater extent than the ocean. These functions are often treated separately, with studies focusing on either crop nutrition or on soil organic carbon. The use of silicate rocks as remineralizers addresses both functions. Weathering releases nutrients, including silica, for crop growth, and consumes atmospheric CO2, generating bicarbonate in solution. If enough Ca is released, and with sufficient bicarbonate in solution, pedogenic calcite forms as a permanent sink for atmospheric CO2. ...

Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands

David J. Beerling, Euripides P. Kantzas, Mark R. Lomas, Peter Wade, Rafael M. Eufrasio, Phil Renforth, Binoy Sarkar, M. Grace Andrews, Rachael H. James, Christopher R. Pearce, Jean-Francois Mercure, Hector Pollitt, Philip B. Holden, Neil R. Edwards, Madhu Khanna, Lenny Koh, Shaun Quegan, Nick F. Pidgeon, Ivan A. Janssens, James Hansen & Steven A. Banwart Abstract Enhanced silicate rock weathering (ERW), deployable with croplands, has potential use for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR), which is now necessary to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. ERW also has possible co-benefits for improved food and soil security, and ...

Potential CO2 removal from enhanced weathering by ecosystem responses to powdered rock

Daniel S. Goll, Philippe Ciais, Thorben Amann, Wolfgang Buermann, Jinfeng Chang, Sibel Eker, Jens Hartmann, Ivan Janssens, Wei Li, Michael Obersteiner, Josep Penuelas, Katsumasa Tanaka & Sara Vicca Abstract Negative emission technologies underpin socioeconomic scenarios consistent with the Paris Agreement. Afforestation and bioenergy coupled with carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage are the main land negative emission technologies proposed, but the range of nature-based solutions is wider. Here we explore soil amendment with powdered basalt in natural ecosystems. Basalt is an abundant rock resource, which reacts with CO2 and removes ...

Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks

Jessica Strefler, Thorben Amann, Nico Bauer, Elmar Kriegler and Jens Hartmann Abstract The chemical weathering of rocks currently absorbs about 1.1 Gt CO2 a−1 being mainly stored as bicarbonate in the ocean. An enhancement of this slow natural process could remove substantial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, aiming to offset some unavoidable anthropogenic emissions in order to comply with the Paris Agreement, while at the same time it may decrease ocean acidification. We provide the first comprehensive assessment of economic costs, energy requirements, technical parameterization, and global and regional carbon removal potential. The ...

Increased yield and CO2 sequestration potential with the C4 cereal Sorghum bicolor cultivated in basaltic rock dust-amended agricultural soil

Mike E. Kelland, Peter W. Wade, Amy L. Lewis, Lyla L. Taylor, Binoy Sarkar, M. Grace Andrews, Mark R. Lomas, T. E. Anne Cotton, Simon J. Kemp, Rachael H. James, Christopher R. Pearce, Sue E. Hartley, Mark E. Hodson, Jonathan R. Leake, Steven A. Banwart, David J. Beerling Abstract Land-based enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a biogeochemical carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy aiming to accelerate natural geological processes of carbon sequestration through application of crushed silicate rocks, such as basalt, to croplands and forested landscapes. However, the efficacy of the approach when undertaken with basalt, and its potential ...

ENHANCED CHEMICAL WEATHERING AS A GEOENGINEERING STRATEGY TO REDUCE ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE, SUPPLY NUTRIENTS, AND MITIGATE OCEAN ACIDIFICATION

Jens Hartmann, A. Joshua West, Phil Renforth, Peter Köhler, Christina L. De La Rocha, Dieter A. Wolf-Gladrow, Hans H. Dürr, Jürgen Scheffran Abstract Chemical weathering is an integral part of both the rock and carbon cycles and is being affected by changes in land use, particularly as a result of agricultural practices such as tilling, mineral fertilization, or liming to adjust soil pH. These human activities have already altered the terrestrial chemical cycles and land-ocean flux of major elements, although the extent remains difficult to quantify. When deployed on a grand scale, Enhanced Weathering (a form of mineral fertilization), ...

Carbonate Precipitation in Artificial Soils Produced from Basaltic Quarry Fines and Composts: An Opportunity for Passive Carbon Sequestration

D.A.C. Manning, P. Renforth, E. Lopez-Capel, S. Robertson, N. Ghazireh Abstract The proportions of different carbon pools within artificial soils prepared by blending composts with dolerite and basalt quarry fines has changed over a period of 7 years, accumulating inorganic carbon as carbonate minerals newly formed within the soils. With no artificial energy inputs following construction, this is regarded as a passive mineral carbonation process. Carbon isotope data show that up to 40% of the carbon within the soil carbonate is derived from photosynthesis, mixed with carbon from geological sources (limestone present in the quarry fines). ...

Biological Enhancement of Soil Carbonate Precipitation: Passive Removal of Atmospheric CO2

D.A.C. Manning Abstract Soils are the dominant terrestrial sink for carbon, containing three times as much C as above-ground plant biomass, and acting as a host for both organic and inorganic C, as soil organic matter and pedogenic carbonates, respectively. This article reviews evidence for the generation within the soil solution of dissolved C derived from plants and recognition of its precipitation as carbonates. It then considers the potential value of this process for artificially-mediated CO2 sequestration within soils. The ability of crops such as wheat to produce organic acid anions as root exudates is substantial, generating 70 ...

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 ...