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In a first, Iceland power plant turns carbon emissions to stone

EdEarl
in Science News

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Phys.org

Scientists and engineers working at a major power plant in Iceland have shown for the first time that carbon dioxide emissions can be pumped into the earth and changed chemically to a solid within months—radically faster than anyone had predicted.

They pumped C02 into subterranean basalt, which is common throughout the world. This method is the first time CO2 has been sequestered and turned to rock so quickly. They drilled wells and removed core samples to determine how quickly the CO2 combined chemically with rock. Previously, the consensus was that CO2 would take a very long time to solidify.

Nice! I had thought the process would need to extract the mineral, recombine it chemically, and put it back in the ground. If injecting just the dioxide suffices, this looks really cheap now. Thanks Ed!

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