A cheap method of permanently removing atmospheric carbon dioxide by sequestering it in specially made minerals has been developed by Stanford University chemists.
Climate experts believe that preventing additional global warming will require both slashing the use of fossil fuels and permanently removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. But technologies for carbon removal remain costly, energy-intensive or both – and unproven at large scale.
The new process uses heat to transform common minerals into materials that spontaneously pull carbon from the atmosphere and permanently sequester it. These reactive materials can be produced in conventional kilns, like those used to make cement.
“The Earth has an inexhaustible supply of minerals that are capable of removing CO2 from the atmosphere, but they just don’t react fast enough on their own to counteract human greenhouse gas emissions,” said Matthew Kanan, chemistry professor at Stanford. “Our work solves this problem in a way that...
