253 results for group: journal-article

Surface Proton Reservoirs Constrain Alkalinity Export from Enhanced Weathering

Kate Maher, Brian Rogers, Zach Perzan, Tyler Kukla ABSTRACT: The addition of silicate and carbonate materials to soils (enhanced weathering) is a proposed carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy with potential agronomic co-benefits, especially for soil pH management. However, alkalinity from mineral dissolution interacts with the surface proton reservoir (SPR), consuming alkalinity prior to export and complicating quantification. Because durable CDR requires transmission of alkalinity to marine storage, soil export constitutes a mechanistically definable upper bound on EW performance. Here, we develop a framework that partitions ...

Overlooked Soil Acidity Leads to Significant Overestimation of Carbon Sequestration in Enhanced Rock Weathering

Chenxia Su, Ronghua Kang, Charles T. Driscoll, Weixing Zhu, Daniel S. Goll, Wentao Huang, Ang Wang, Yunting Fang ABSTRACT: Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a promising carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy, yet current estimates commonly assume that cation release directly reflects CO2 sequestration. We investigated wollastonite weathering and carbon sequestration in agricultural soils spanning a wide pH range using column experiments. Weathering decreased with increasing soil pH, with 63%, 48%, and 30% of wollastonite dissolved at pH 4, 6, and 8, respectively. However, CDR estimated from cation release exceeded measured ...

Mechanistic Insights and Engineering Pathways of Enhanced Rock Weathering for Carbon Neutrality in Mountainous Mine Ecological Restoration

Yanzhao Yuan, Fenghao Duan, Yanjun Shen, Bailei Shi, Chao Zhen ABSTRACT: Ecological restoration of abandoned mountainous mines remains challenging because of complex geological conditions, severe substrate degradation, and long-term environmental impacts. Conventional restoration strategies primarily emphasize vegetation establishment and slope stabilization, while the potential contribution of carbon sequestration is often insufficiently considered. Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) has recently emerged as a promising negative-emission technology that accelerates the natural weathering of silicate minerals to remove atmospheric CO2 ...

ForestERW: A Spatially Explicit Carbon Dioxide Removal Model for Practical Enhanced Rock Weathering Applications in United States Forests

Todd C McDonnell, Justin G Coughlin, Christopher Clark, Lyla Taylor, Charles T Driscoll ABSTRACT: Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is an emerging carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pathway that has been heavily explored for agricultural systems. There may also be co-benefits from this approach in historically acidified forest ecosystems by replenishing depleted nutrient cations, leading to increased tree growth. However, far less analysis has been conducted for forest land applications. Process-based modeling of these benefits is currently preferable because there are insufficient empirical data on ERW in forests to effectively capture ...

Basalt-Based Enhanced Rock Weathering for Long-Term CO2 Storage: Insights from Mineral Carbonation Experiments

Pragalathan Rasaiah, Prerna Yogeshwar, Suraj Kumar, Jitendra S. Sangwai ABSTRACT: Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) using Rajmahal traps basalt from India was investigated as a sustainable pathway for permanent CO2 sequestration through aqueous mineral carbonation. Experiments were conducted in a high-pressure stirred tank reactor to optimize the operational parameters, including sample volume and initial CO2 pressure. The optimum conditions of 20 g of basalt and 10 bar pressure achieved a maximum CO2 uptake of 9.72 g/kg basalt, corresponding to 6.27% of the carbonation efficiency. Detailed mineralogical and morphological analyses ...

Metal Accumulation Risks in Enhanced Rock Weathering: Risk Assessment Framework and Recommendations – Preprint

Noemma Olagaray, Jonathan Edward Lambert, Tannis Thorlakson ABSTRACT: Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) has emerged as a promising carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pathway that could mitigate climate change while improving agricultural soils. However, as the rocks used in ERW weather, metals posing an environmental safety risk can also be released. The nascency of ERW, complex dynamics of metal release and availability, and heterogeneity of global soil regulations make it difficult for practitioners to determine accumulation risks for many metals. To systematically evaluate these risks, we created the ERW Metal Accumulation Calculator ...

Harnessing cover crop–rock weathering synergies for climate-smart agriculture

Tianyi Qiu, Jay Ram Lamichhane, David J. Beerling et al. ABSTRACT: The use of cover crops (CCs) is increasingly promoted to diversify cropping systems and advance agricultural sustainability. Yet, CC adoption can involve context-dependent trade-offs, including resource competition and elevated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this opinion article, we propose enhanced rock weathering (ERW) as a complementary strategy to improve biogeochemical synchrony within CC systems. By synthesizing emerging evidence, we show how CC–ERW interactions can synergistically enhance carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, GHG mitigation, and ...

Critical Zone Processes Limit Alkalinity Export from Natural Basaltic Systems

L. A. Derry, K. Maher, O. A. Chadwick ABSTRACT: Enhanced weathering (EW) of rocks is a proposed strategy for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) that relies on the dissolution of silicate minerals, typically basalt, applied to soils1. Globally, large-scale CDR by means of EW requires the generation of alkalinity during mineral dissolution in soils and preservation and transport of that alkalinity through groundwater and rivers to reach the ocean2,3. Although field trials and models have focused on near-surface alkalinity generation after addition of crushed rock4,5, the transmission of this alkalinity is modulated by hydrological and ...

Accelerating Weathering, Lessons From a Century of Soil Rejuvenation

Budiman Minasny, Xavier Dupla ABSTRACT: Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is now widely discussed as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy, but many of the issues it faces were already evident in early agronomic experiments on crushed silicate rocks. This article revisits the pioneering work of Octave d'Hotman de Villiers in Mauritius during the 1930s-1950s, where crushed basalt was applied at very high rates (20-450 t ha-1) to highly weathered tropical soils to rejuvenate sugarcane productivity. We examine the rationale, experimental design, yield responses, and material constraints of these trials and situate them within the longer history of ...

Combining biochar and basanite rock powder enhances carbon dioxide removal by carbonate alkalinity production

Johannes Meyer Zu Drewer, Maria-Elena Vorrath, Thorben Amann, Jens Hartmann, Maria Ansari, Marcela Cárcamo Pérez, Nikolas Hagemann ABSTRACT: The combination of enhanced rock weathering (ERW) with pyrogenic carbon capture and storage (PyCCS) has been proposed to harness synergistic effects on carbon dioxide removal (CDR). This can be facilitated by co-application of silicate rock powder and biochar or co-pyrolysis of rock powder and biomass to produce rock-enhanced (RE-)biochar. While it is well documented that co-pyrolysis of biomass and silicate rock does not affect the carbon yield nor the aromaticity of RE-biochar, the effect of co-pyro...