L'carbon dioxide in excess it undergoes a natural capture process, a phenomenon known asCO2 mineralization. During the process, carbon dioxide is stored in the rocks through the rock degradation mechanism: some minerals react chemically with thecarbon dioxide atmospheric and trap it inside very stable compounds.
As well as all geological processes, also theCO2 mineralizationit takes a very long time but in the meantime the globe continues to grow and the estimates are terrifying: there are 1.5 billion people in the world who currently do not have access to electricity. To supply energy to this slice of the world, approximately 28 gigawatts of electricity are needed, less than what China installs in a single year. Thanks to clean energy sources, not necessarily more electricity will translate into more pollution. Despite renewables, in one of the latest Enea reports we read that the production of electricity represents the production sector with the highest release of CO2 as the power stations mostly use natural gas, coal and petroleum products.
While renewables make their way into the energy sector and mobility strives to become more sustainable, a study published in "RSC Advances" explains how the process ofCO2 mineralizationexploiting the metamorphic rocks.
Current methods ofCO2 storagethey are rather cumbersome, take place underground and require continuous monitoring. Thegas it could be stored in a much shorter time. The study published in RSC Advances involved research centers in Singapore and Finland. The researchers found that by using rocks rich in magnesium and adding a simple catalyst such as ammonium salt, theCO2 mineralizationit can happen very quickly. The result of the reaction is a compound thatstores CO2and remains stable for millions of years.
