Monat: Juli 2024

Peer-reviewed Publications

Liu et al. (2024): Enhancing CO2 storage and marine carbon sink based on seawater mineral carbonation

Shan Shan Liu , Jin Ming Song, Xue Gang Li, Hua Mao Yuan, Li Qin Duan, Shuo Chen Li, Zhi Bo Wang, Jun Ma IN: Marine Pollution Bulletin, 206, 116685, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116685

This work investigates current advancements in proposed seawater mineral carbonation technologies, including CO2 storage and ocean chemical carbon sequestration. CO2 storage technology relies on indirect mineral carbonation to fix CO2, involving CO2 dissolution, Ca/Mg extraction, and carbonate precipitation, optimized by adding alkaline substances or using electrochemical methods. Ocean chemical carbon sequestration uses natural seawater for direct mineral carbonation, enhanced by adding specific materials to promote carbonate precipitation and increase CO2 absorption, thus enhancing marine carbon sinks. This study evaluates these technologies‘ advantages and challenges, including reaction rates, costs, and ecological impacts, and analyzes representative materials‘ carbon fixation potential.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Nature – Bai & Ding (2024): Estimation of changes in carbon sequestration and its economic value with various stand density and rotation age of Pinus massoniana plantations in China

Yunxing Bai, Guijie Ding  IN: Scientific Reports, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-67307-z

Plantations actively participate in the global carbon cycle and play a significant role in mitigating global climate change. However, the influence of forest management strategies, especially planting density management, on the biomass carbon storage and production value of plantations for ensuring carbon sink benefits is still unclear. In this study, the authors estimated the carbon sequestration and economic value of Pinus massoniana plantations with various stand densities and rotation ages using a growth model method. 

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Sokol et al. (2024): Reduced accrual of mineral-associated organic matter after two years of enhanced rock weathering in cropland soils, though no net losses of soil organic carbon

Noah W. Sokol, Jaeeun Sohng, Kimber Moreland, Eric Slessarev, Heath Goertzen, Radomir Schmidt, Sandipan Samaddar, Iris Holzer, Maya Almaraz, Emily Geoghegan, Benjamin Houlton, Isabel Montañez, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Kate Scow IN: Biogeochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-024-01160-0

Enhanced rock weathering, the application of crushed silicate rock to soil, can remove atmospheric carbon dioxide by converting it to (bi) carbonate ions or solid carbonate minerals. However, few studies have empirically evaluated ERW in field settings. A critical question remains as to whether additions of crushed rock might positively or negatively affect soil organic matter —Earth’s largest terrestrial organic carbon pool and a massive reservoir of organic nitrogen. Here, in three irrigated cropland field trials in California, USA, we investigated the effect of crushed meta-basalt rock additions on different pools of soil organic carbon and nitrogen (i.e., mineral-associated organic matter, MAOM, and particulate organic matter, POM), active microbial biomass, and microbial community composition.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Liu et al. (2024): Direct air capture of CO2 using biochar prepared from sewage sludge: Adsorption capacity and kinetics

Jun Liu, Zefan Wang, Chenyang Liang, Kehao Fang, Shaokang Li, Xinwei Guo, Tao Wang, Mengxiang Fang IN: Science of The Total Environment 948, 174887, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174887

As an emerging carbon-negative emission technology, carbon dioxide capture from the air is an essential safeguard for alleviating global warming. Sludge-activated carbon with excellent mesoporous structure is a potential material for CO2 capture. In this paper, the amino modified sewage sludge materials were used to prepare the porous CO2 adsorbent from air.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Almajed et al. (2024): Closing the Loop: Unexamined Performance Trade-Offs of Integrating Direct Air Capture with (Bi)carbonate Electrolysis

Hussain M. Almajed, Recep Kas, Paige Brimley, Allison M. Crow, Ana Somoza-Tornos, Bri-Mathias Hodge, Thomas E. Burdyny, Wilson A. Smith IN: ACS Energy Letters 9 (5), 2472-2483, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00807

CO2 from carbonate-based capture solutions requires a substantial energy input. Replacing this step with (bi)carbonate electrolysis has been commonly proposed as an efficient alternative that coproduces CO/syngas. Here, the authors assess the feasibility of directly integrating air contactors with (bi)carbonate electrolyzers by leveraging process, multiphysics, microkinetic, and technoeconomic models. 

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Nature – Pan et al. (2024): The enduring world forest carbon sink

Yude Pan, Richard A. Birdsey, Oliver L. Phillips, Richard A. Houghton, Jingyun Fang, Pekka E. Kauppi, Heather Keith, Werner A. Kurz, Akihiko Ito, Simon L. Lewis, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Anatoly Shvidenko, Shoji Hashimoto, Bas Lerink, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Andrea Castanho, Daniel Murdiyarso IN: Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07602-x

To provide a ground-based long-term assessment of the contribution of forests to terrestrial CO2 uptake, the authors synthesized in situ forest data from boreal, temperate and tropical biomes spanning three decades. They found that the carbon sink in global forests was steady, at 3.6 ± 0.4 Pg C yr−1 in the 1990s and 2000s, and 3.5 ± 0.4 Pg C yr−1 in the 2010s. Despite this global stability, our analysis revealed some major biome-level changes. Carbon sinks have increased in temperate (+30 ± 5%) and tropical regrowth (+29 ± 8%) forests owing to increases in forest area, but they decreased in boreal (−36 ± 6%) and tropical intact (−31 ± 7%) forests, as a result of intensified disturbances and losses in intact forest area, respectively.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Caldecott & Johnstone (2024): The Carbon Removal Budget: theory and practice

Ben Caldecott, Injy Johnstone IN: Carbon Management, 15, https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2024.2374515

There are ongoing questions as to how we can increase the supply of quality CDR whilst at the same time ensure equitable distribution of that same CDR, both within and between countries and non-state actors. To explore these phenomena, the authors introduce and define the concept of a Carbon Removal Budget (CRB), illustrate how it can apply to different contexts and scales, and distinguish it from the related but distinct concept of the carbon budget. They further estimate the global CRB, review its constraints and quality considerations and outline potential utilisation pathways and principles. They then examine the potential application of the CRB as a tool on which both public and private decision-makers can use to assess the feasibility of their nationally determined contributions and/or net-zero transition plans.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

De Marco et al. (2024): Energy demand and savings opportunities in the supply of limestone and olivine-rich rocks for geochemical carbon dioxide removal

Serena De Marco, Stefano Caserini, Thorben Amann, Mario Grosso IN: Environ. Res. Lett., 19, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad4efb

The large-scale implementation of geochemical Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) approaches such as Enhanced Weathering (EW) and Ocean Liming (OL) will require the extraction and processing of large amounts of limestone and olivine-rich rocks. Based on a literature review, surface mining, comminution, their related sub-stages, and long-haul transportation have carefully been surveyed to elucidate the order of magnitude of the energy demand, the technical challenges posed by each operation, and the potential energy-savings achievable by applying opportune strategies.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Nature – Metcalfe et al. (2024): Separation and concentration of CO2 from air using a humidity-driven molten-carbonate membrane

Ian S. Metcalfe, Greg A. Mutch, Evangelos I. Papaioannou, Sotiria Tsochataridou, Dragos Neagu, Dan J. L. Brett, Francesco Iacoviello, Thomas S. Miller, Paul R. Shearing, Patricia A. Hunt IN: Nat energy, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01588-6

Here the Authors report a molten-carbonate membrane that can ‘pump’ CO2 from a 400 ppm input stream (representative of air) to an output stream with a higher concentration of CO2, by exploiting ambient energy in the form of a humidity difference. The substantial H2O concentration difference across the membrane drives CO2 permeation ‘uphill’ against its own concentration difference, analogous to active transport in biological membranes.

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Victor & Nichols (2024): Impact of carbon dioxide removal technologies on deep decarbonization: EMF37 MARKAL–NETL modeling results

Nadejda Victor, Christopher Nichols IN: Energy and Climate Change 5, 100143, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egycc.2024.100143

This paper examines the MARKAL-NETL modeling results for the Energy Modeling Forum study on Deep Decarbonization and High Electrification Scenarios for North America (EMF 37) with a specific focus on carbon dioxide removal technologies and opportunities under different scenario guidelines, policies, and technological advancements.

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