Mayes, William Matthew; Riley, Alex L.; Gomes, Helena I.; Brabham, Peter; Hamlyn, Joanna; Pullin, Huw; Renforth, Phil (2018): Atmospheric CO2 sequestration in iron and steel slag. Consett, Co. Durham, UK. In: Environmental science & technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01883.

"Carbonate formation in waste from the steel industry could constitute a non-trivial proportion of global requirements to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at potentially low cost. To constrain this potential, we examined atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration in a >20 million tonne legacy slag deposit in northern England, UK. Carbonates formed from the drainage water of the heap had stable carbon and oxygen isotopes between -12 and -25 ‰ and -5 and -18 ‰ for δ13C and δ18O respectively, suggesting atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration in high pH solutions. From analysis of solution saturation state, we estimate that between 280 and 2,900 tCO2 have precipitated from the drainage waters. However, by combining a thirty-seven-year dataset of the drainage water chemistry with geospatial analysis, we estimate that <1 % of the maximum carbon capture potential of the deposit may have been realised. This implies that uncontrolled deposition of slag is insufficient to maximise carbon sequestration, and there may be considerable quantities of unreacted legacy deposits available for atmospheric carbon sequestration."

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"I am minimizing Communications, so that I can (really!) finish Sophie’s Planet, while also providing expert testimony for several lawsuits aimed at using the judicial branch of government to force the other branches of government to do their job.  However, there is enough popular misinterpretation of recent news about the cost of carbon capture that I should comment on that."

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"Industrial scale methods of carbon recapture may be on the horizon, but it’s far from an end-all solution to our changing climate."

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Keith, David W.; Holmes, Geoffrey; St. Angelo, David; Heidel, Kenton (2018): A Process for Capturing CO 2 from the Atmosphere. In Joule. DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2018.05.006.

"We describe a process for capturing CO₂ from the atmosphere in an industrial plant. The design captures ∼1 Mt-CO₂/year in a continuous process using an aqueous KOH sorbent coupled to a calcium caustic recovery loop. We describe the design rationale, summarize performance of the major unit operations, and provide a capital cost breakdown developed with an independent consulting engineering firm."

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