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In the near-term, the development of pretreated biomass as a drop-in replacement for coal in
conventional coal power plants will leverage existing fixed-capital investments (coal power plants),
while creating a robust, distributed biomass fuel supply infrastructure able to support future, more
efficient biomass power generators. As such, one research aim is to quantify biochar permanence in
soil and the impact on crop productivity. Depending on location and societal preferences,
transporting and storing or disposing of these tailings could be problematic. WigginsSethT2012.pdf:
1619580 bytes, checksum: 31b734b934aaeed50fec6165e3d8707c (MD5). The 2020-2022 cohort
investigated the issue of soil health in agricultural soils. We are not aware of regional compilations of
glass abundance and distribution. However, the area that is harvested is highly variable among the
scenarios modeled, indicating that there are potential impacts on net greenhouse gas emissions and
other values of impacted forests over time. Importantly, carbonation rates for all reactants except
olivine decreased with time, presumably due to passivation. The fundamental challenge with carbon
capture is achieving a pure stream of CO 2 for sequestration that involves either separating oxygen
from air before combustion or CO 2 from power plant exhaust after combustion. This program would
fit within the research portfolios and funding priorities of DOE. Of particular concern for BECCS
deployment will be competition for the land needed to produce biomass for bioenergy and the same
land needed for other carbon dioxide removal approaches such as afforestation. Engineered systems
that utilize this potential energy could, in principle, be among the least expensive routes to combined
CO 2 capture from air and solid storage. Yet many policymakers and academics are not aware of the
pervasive and pivotal role that BECCS plays in climate change mitigation pathways despite being in
its infancy ( Anderson and Peters, 2016 ). Because of recent, damaging failures of tailings dams in
the United States and Canada, the current regulatory and social environment discourages innovation
in the design of tailings storage facilities. The program has two main thrusts: (1) pretreatment
technology for converting biomass into a drop-in replacement for coal and (2) logistics research to
address biomass supply chain issues (i.e., production, storage, handling, and transportation). Because
they utilize this naturally available chemical energy, these methods may offer a low cost means to
mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, much of the fuelwood is used to produce
paper and other wood products at manufacturing facilities that are concentrated mainly in the south (
DOE, 2016 ). Ideally, these layers will be bounded by low permeability barriers, with little faulting
or deformation. The steps involving production and re-injection of groundwater depend on state and
local regulations but might be relatively straightforward to implement. Expanded support from NSF
and DOE would enable the integration of laboratory, modeling, and field approaches. Potential
basalt reservoirs will have layers that are rich in highly reactive, amorphous volcanic glass, have high
permeability, and have relatively high temperatures at shallow depth. We are not aware of more
detailed, comprehensive reviews of the global CO 2 storage capacity of onland basalts. These
methods most closely emulate natural processes of CO 2 uptake. Currently, none of these pathways
has net negative life cycle carbon emissions; however, most technology developers optimize
processes for maximum fuel production, not carbon emissions—often burning co-produced biochar
to provide low-cost process heat. Research is needed to evaluate and develop biomass densification,
pretreatment, and formation techniques using a variety of biomass feedstocks (agricultural
byproducts, energy crops, wood, and organic waste) into a product that is compatible with coal-fired
power plants. Finally, combustion uses air or pure oxygen gas to completely oxidize biomass to
produce heat for direct use or for power generation. Red open circles in all four panels are
dissolution rates of Mg-endmember olivine (forsterite) at pH 6.5 based on fit to compiled data by
Palandri and Kharaka, 2004. Industry-academic partnerships, with research funding from the
National Science Foundation (NSF), seem best suited to address such optimization issues. Filling of
pore space with reaction products may reduce permeability and armor reactive surfaces, forming a
solid diffusive boundary layer between fluid and solid reactants. The mineral olivine, and rocks
containing tens of percent olivine, such as mantle peridotite, ultramafic intrusions, and basaltic lavas,
are widely available and react rapidly, and therefore are the most commonly considered solid
reactants for carbon mineralization.
Therefore, a very rough estimate of the current technical potential has been calculated, considering
that the difference between current total croplands and harvested croplands according to USDA
(2014) could be cultivated as energy crops. Biomass sequesters atmospheric CO 2 while growing,
leading to an initial negative emission. This project follows on the completion of the Illinois Basin-
Decatur Project, which captured and injected CO 2 from the ADM plant to the Mt. These veins
formed by precipitation in fractures plus diffusive exchange with surrounding wall rocks. In situ
mineral capture and storage potentially has a lower cost than surficial methods, and a giant storage
capacity, but involves uncertain feedbacks between permeability, reactive surface area, and reaction
rate, and so remains a topic of basic, theoretical research. Achieving this 1 percent annual yield
increase would require research to genetically modify herbaceous crops and develop silvicultural
systems that target biomass production rather than wood volume or quality ( Dietrich et al., 2014;
Lotze-Campen et al., 2010; Robison et al., 2006 ). The DOE (2016) assumes agricultural lands to
stay constant over the years. Emphasis should be on robust processes and that can utilize a multitude
of biomass feedstocks to maximize their long-term commercialization potential as well as enabling
subsystem technologies that reduce the overall costs of carbon negative biomass-to-fuel processes.
There must be an annulus around the injection site where existing carbonate minerals dissolve in low
pH fluid and new carbonate will not precipitate. Goldberg and Slagle (2009) estimate the global
carbon storage capacity of seafloor basalts. However, this is not an estimation of the net potential for
CO 2 sequestration from BECCS. These negative feedbacks may commonly cause peridotite
carbonation (and hydration and oxidation) to be self-limiting, preserving lithologies in outcrop that
are far from equilibrium with surface conditions. However, on forestland that is currently harvested,
a significant amount of logging residue is not currently utilized, and some of this is readily available
to increase bioenergy supply. The inset illustrates results of a model including surface energy driven
fluid flow. In particular, national laboratories should be engaged to operate pilot-scale testing
facilities. Nevertheless, in the two-stage process, it is generally considered that mineral dissolution is
the rate-limiting step, so it is possible to compare mineral dissolution rates (as an upper bound on the
combined. Nonetheless, a consistent theme is that the cost for proposed CO 2 storage via ex situ
mineralization is about 10 times higher than the cost of storage of injected CO 2 in subsurface pore
space beneath an impermeable cap rock, even when the long-term cost of monitoring potential leaks
is included for storage in pore space. Such approaches are currently used to enhance metal extraction
but could also be followed to enhance carbon mineralization. Some of this could be overcome by
stirring the tailings and similar low-cost methods. Over the time span of several years to decades,
passivation of reactive surfaces may decrease the mineralization rate. Pending a successful outcome
of this step (CO 2 removal from circulating fluids, no sustained decrease in permeability),
experiments could progress to investigating deeper circulation into hotter rock formations, with
faster carbon mineralization rates. If so, the cost of heat treatment could become considerable. This,
combined with the abundance of peridotite within 3 km of Earth’s surface, yields storage reservoirs
capable in principle of holding 10 5 to 10 8 Gt CO 2 in solid form ( Kelemen et al., 2011, 2016;
Tables 6.1 and 6.2 ). She is also a faculty associate of MSU’s Center for Biofilm. The opportunity to
combine science, outdoor adventure and. This program would fit within the research portfolios and
funding priorities of DOE. Amorphous glass forms when portions of basaltic lava flows cool faster
than the time required for nucleation and growth of crystals. For biomass energy carbon removal
approaches, carbon accounting is particularly challenging because the amount of net carbon removal
largely depends on the specific pathway chosen (i.e., production. Promising technologies should be
promoted from applied research to bench-scale prototypes (. Currently, none of these pathways has
net negative life cycle carbon emissions; however, most technology developers optimize processes
for maximum fuel production, not carbon emissions—often burning co-produced biochar to provide
low-cost process heat. This oxidation of SOC to CO 2 occurs when microbes use carbon to build
their own biomass.
Filling of pore space with reaction products may reduce permeability and armor reactive surfaces,
forming a solid diffusive boundary layer between fluid and solid reactants. And again, continued
research on this topic is justified by geologic observations of fully carbonated peridotite. SOURCE:
Evans et al., 2018. FIGURE 6.16 Pink lines indicate position and length of tensile fractures that
would form in 2D model of a tabular zone of high porosity infiltrated by CO 2 -rich fluid, reacting
with olivine to produce carbonate minerals with volume expansion. Use of heat treatment to increase
the rate of serpentine carbonation is less relevant to methods for storage of CO 2 captured from air.
Dissolved NaHCO 3 buffers pH in a range where both olivine dissolution and carbonate
precipitation are relatively rapid. NOTE: The rectangle labeled “hydrocarbons” encompasses the
range of Gibbs free energies of formation for common hydrocarbon species (e.g., methane, ethane,
and butane) per mole of carbon. Of the 4,000 TWh of electricity generated in the United States in
2016, only 40 TWh was from wood-derived fuels and 22 TWh was from other biomass sources,
including municipal solid waste, agricultural byproducts, and other biomass ( EIA, 2017d ). NOTES:
CO 2 and SO 2 are important constituents of the geothermal gas that are separated from other gas
constituents and co-injected with geothermal brine effluent from the power plant. Biochar soil
amendment has been proposed as a promising path for long-term carbon removal strategy; however,
questions remain about the long-term stability of biochar in soil environments. NOTE: The observed
deficit in carbon concentration and 14 C are consistent with loss of consumption of almost all
injected CO 2 along the flow path to form solid carbonate minerals. Given that the carbonation
process adds cost, compared to other sources of aggregate for concrete, research focuses on the
possibility of producing aggregate that has added, desirable properties in the final concrete product
(e.g., Gadikota et al., 2015 ). Another idea is to use the reaction products in the supply chain for
conversion of CO 2 to methane (CH 4 ) and more complex hydrocarbons. Ongoing research seeks to
outline a “phase diagram” delineating the conditions for reaction-driven cracking, and the
surrounding parameter space dominated by clogging and armoring of reactive surfaces. Improved
geo-hydrological models and analysis at the regional level are needed to better understand
constraints and potential solutions regarding impacts on water ( Slade et al., 2014 ). Mafic intrusions
comparable in composition to basaltic lavas are mined for platinum group elements, Cr and Ni. The
first is to determine which minerals are reacting. Thus, it may be possible to reduce the cost and
energy intensity of quarrying and grinding rock for carbon mineralization alone. Near-surface
peridotites have fracture-dominated porosity of approximately 1 volume percent. If necessary,
carbon-depleted water could be produced downstream and recycled, reducing overall water
consumption. The thermochemical conversion of biomass to fuels can produce 25-45 percent by
mass biochar (solid carbon) as a byproduct, depending on the feedstock and process conditions
(temperature, pressure, partial pressures, and residence times). Currently, none of these pathways has
net negative life cycle carbon emissions; however, most technology developers optimize processes
for maximum fuel production, not carbon emissions—often burning co-produced biochar to provide
low-cost process heat. Grinding ultramafic or mafic basaltic rock reactants to smaller sizes than
typical of mine tailings, and spreading them in agricultural soil, forest soil, or along beaches has been
suggested as a means for CO 2 removal from air (e.g., Schuiling and Krijgsman, 2006 ). BECCS is
largely used by integrated assessment models (IAMs) because its cost is low relative to other low
carbon technologies and because the modules to represent other carbon dioxide removal technologies
are undeveloped (e.g., direct air capture and soil carbon management). Recent analyses found that
deploying NETs may be less expensive and less disruptive than reducing some emissions, such as a
substantial portion of agricultural and land-use emissions and some transportation emissions.
However, the data also illustrate that amorphous basaltic glass is an important exception to the rule
that peridotite reacts faster than basaltic lava. For example, they estimated that such processes would
approximately double the cost of electricity from a coal-fired power plant. Program managers should
contract third-party engineering design and estimation firms to provide engineering and economic
assessments of technologies under consideration for scale-up (stage-gates). A more extensive
discussion of kinetic data for carbon mineralization appears below (see section “Carbon
Mineralization Kinetics”). Unlike carbon capture and storage technologies that remove carbon
dioxide emissions directly from large point sources such as coal power plants, NETs remove carbon
dioxide directly from the atmosphere or enhance natural carbon sinks. These negative feedbacks may
commonly cause peridotite carbonation (and hydration and oxidation) to be self-limiting, preserving
lithologies in outcrop that are far from equilibrium with surface conditions. The committee identified
the following systems-level needs.
In the past, public-private partnerships have played a critical role in the demonstration and
deployment of new technology. However, this value is so low that a potential under- or
overestimation is probably negligible. In this experiment, rye and a four-species cover crop mix were
used to assess their effect on soil carbon storage. Ca and Mg in alkaline industrial wastes react at
about the same rate as wollastonite. These costs are summarized below, followed by specific
estimates of carbon costs for CO 2 generated and captured in a power plant and biochar produced by
pyrolysis. Importantly, carbonation rates for all reactants except olivine decreased with time,
presumably due to passivation. The methods reviewed here emulate and accelerate spontaneous,
natural processes, making use of the abundant chemical potential energy that is available where rocks
from Earth’s deep interior are emplaced at and near the surface, where they are far from equilibrium
with the atmosphere and hydrosphere. Indeed, it may be a reasonable analogue for carbonation of
calcium silicates in industrial wastes, such as steel slag for example. This report also defines the
essential components of a research and development program, including its estimated costs and
potential impact. Panels labeled (a)-(d) illustrate results of a model without surface energy driven
“capillary” flow, as a function of the tensile stress required for fracture, labeled at the top of each
panel. For biomass thermochemical conversion to fuels with co-production of biochar, there are no
apparent technical or economic limits to the amount of carbon that can be stored, regardless of how it
is stored (i.e., as a soil amendment or in landfills). More effort needs to be focused on potential
effects of geochemical contamination, because in many cases implementation is likely to be close to
surface water and groundwater resources. The overall concept seems simple enough, and this process
has been observed in peridotite carbonation experiments ( Zhu et al., 2016 ). This work tells
scientists how CO 2 behaves and moves through underground formations and how to make
sequestration work. Phase II is close to the target scale for routine operation, accommodating most
of Reykjavik Energy’s CO 2 emissions at a specific geothermal power plant, and also disposing of
hydrogen sulfide produced at the power plant. For biomass combustion and fermentation pathways,
the limitation is the availability and capacity of geological sequestration (see Chapter 7 ). NOTES:
Blue rock reacts with black fluid to form white solid products, with volume increase and associated
stress concentrations forming red cracks. Indeed, as shown by Heck et al., 2018, the potential for
BECCS from dedicated bioenergy plantation is marginal if we use precautionary guardrails to stay
within planetary boundaries for nonclimate impacts such as biodiversity or freshwater use. Second,
carbon negative biomass-to-fuel conversion pathways need to be developed that are ideally both
profitable from fuel production and carbon negative through the co-production of large quantities of
sequestered biochar. Where necessary and possible, we use geometric surface area to calculate rates
because more detailed surface area measurements are not available for many of the data sets we wish
to compare. Industry-academic partnerships, with research funding from the National Science
Foundation (NSF), seem best suited to address such optimization issues. Large geothermal power
plants commonly employ pumps at the surface and within boreholes, optimizing the flow rate to
generate maximum electricity at a minimum pumping rate. Carbon sequestration refers to the transfer
of carbon from the atmosphere to another long-term carbon reservoir. In the absence of such
organizations, Deutch (2011) proposed the creation of a new institution that would be responsible for
managing and selecting technology demonstration projects and that would be supported by, but
separate from, the federal government, which he called “the Energy Technology Corporation.” This
organization would house a well-designed. Therefore, the use of BECCS might lead to food security
issues. As a general rule, the size of fracture events should be limited by the low yield strength of
fractured rocks within a few km of Earth’s surface, which is the likely target depth for in situ carbon
mineralization. Available chemical potential energy to drive reaction-driven. For example, grinding to
separate small sulfide or metal oxide minerals for liberation and flotation may exceed the amount of
grinding needed to access labile Mg. Models will need to be calibrated and validated using extensive
observations. In natural systems, and proposed, engineered, in situ carbon mineralization involving
subsurface reaction of CO 2 -bearing fluids with olivine-rich rocks, use of NaHCO 3 would probably
not be required to achieve the same effect, because reaction path modeling has repeatedly shown that
low pH, CO 2 -rich fluids reacting with olivine-rich (ultramafic) rocks are rapidly buffered to high
pH (e.g., Bruni et al., 2002; Paukert et al., 2012 ) in a spontaneous pH swing.
In other applications, it is desirable to prevent reaction-driven cracking, for example in well-bore
cement and in caprocks above storage reservoirs for supercritical CO 2 fluid. Economic wollastonite
deposits are restricted almost entirely to narrow “skarns,” formed by reaction between granitic
magmas and limestone or marble host rocks. Use of heat treatment to increase the rate of serpentine
carbonation is less relevant to methods for storage of CO 2 captured from air. To increase market
size, biochar producers are actively seeking biochar certification as an animal feed supplement, as is
done in Europe. IAMs should also be updated to reflect the most recent understanding of the
responses of consumers to demand-side incentives to reduce meat consumption and waste ( Clark
and Tilman, 2017; Griscom et al., 2017; Poore and Nemecek, 2018; Stehfest et al., 2009 ). The
committee recognizes the need for additional social sciences research on reducing meat consumption
and food waste, but substantial work on these topics, motivated health and economics concerns, is
already occurring. Ongoing research seeks to outline a “phase diagram” delineating the conditions
for reaction-driven cracking, and the surrounding parameter space dominated by clogging and
armoring of reactive surfaces. This section describes two broad approaches to biomass conversion.
This report also defines the essential components of a research and development program, including
its estimated costs and potential impact. In contrast, the global use of fuelwood is more dispersed,
particularly in tropical areas where large wood processing facilities are mostly absent. Because of
time constraints, there is no comparable review in this report of rates as a function of temperature,
P(CO 2 ) and other factors for alkaline, industrial waste materials. Alkaline spring waters are
interpreted as products of precipitation of Mg-carbonate minerals during reaction of groundwater
with peridotite, together with dissolution of Ca-bearing silicates in peridotite (e.g., pyroxenes and
plagioclase). This multidisciplinary research in the field of sustainability and resilience in agricultural
soils contributes to some of the critical conversations CAPI is having regarding the sustainable
prosperity of Canadian agriculture. The average yields are the mean region-specific yields for poplar
and willow crops from DOE (2016). Near-surface peridotites have fracture-dominated porosity of
approximately 1 volume percent. Specifically, an efficient and coordinated supply and utilization
system will be needed. The presence of listvenites reveals that there are natural pathways to complete
reaction under such temperature conditions, despite potential negative feedbacks discussed in the
“Feedbacks between reaction and fluid flow during in situ carbon mineralization” section. The size,
permeability, productivity, and physical and chemical recharge rates of such aquifers are unknown
and could readily be evaluated for several sites at a relatively low cost. Based on our informal
assessment of the volume of existing mines, we estimate that the total mass of existing ultramafic
tailings is less than 10 billion tons, of which an unknown proportion has already been carbonated
due to natural weathering processes. As such, one research aim is to quantify biochar permanence in
soil and the impact on crop productivity. Given that lignin represents about 30 percent by mass and
40 percent by energy content of all biomass, bioengineering pathways to break down and convert
lignin to liquid fuels is specifically recommended. The primary challenge for biomass electrical power
with carbon capture and sequestration is the low efficiency (typically less than 25 percent) of
biomass power plants. WigginsSethT2012.pdf: 1619580 bytes, checksum:
31b734b934aaeed50fec6165e3d8707c (MD5). In contrast, direct air capture systems require
additional technologies and energy input for CO 2 storage. Specifically, bioengineering research
aimed at designing pathways to break down lignin and convert it into fuels should be conducted. If
necessary, carbon-depleted water could be produced downstream and recycled, reducing overall
water consumption. As a general rule, the size of fracture events should be limited by the low yield
strength of fractured rocks within a few km of Earth’s surface, which is the likely target depth for in
situ carbon mineralization. This report acknowledged the relative paucity of research on NETs and
recommended development of a research agenda that covers all aspects of NETs from fundamental
science to full-scale deployment. Carbon sequestration refers to the transfer of carbon from the
atmosphere to another long-term carbon reservoir. This research would be shared with the research
agenda for terrestrial carbon removal and sequestration ( Chapter 3 ).