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Concept
Carbfix
Summary
Carbfix is an Icelandic company that has developed an approach to capturing and storing CO2 in water, and its injection into subsurface basalts. Once in the subsurface, the injected CO2 reacts with the host rock forming stable carbonate minerals, thus providing storage of the captured gas.
Approximately 200 tons of CO2 were injected into subsurface basalts in 2012. Research results published in 2016 showed that 95% of the injected CO2 was solidified into calcite within 2 years, using 25 tons of water per tonne of CO2. Since this time this approach has been upscaled at Hellisheiði and ongoing research is implementing this approach at other sites across Europe.
Carbfix was founded by the then Icelandic President, Dr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Einar Gunnlaugsson at Reykjavík Energy, Wallace S. Broecker at Columbia University, Eric H. Oelkers at CNRS Toulouse (France), and Sigurður Reynir Gíslason at the University of Iceland to limit the Greenhouse gas emissions in Iceland. Reykjavik Energy supplied the initial funding for Carbfix. Further funding has been supplied by The European Commission and the Department of Energy of the United States. In addition to finding a new method for permanent carbon dioxide storage, another objective of the project was to train scientists.
CO2 is captured either by its dissolution in water from power plant exhaust, or directly from the atmosphere by air capture followed by its dissolution in water. The carbonated water is injected into the subsurface where it reacts with the Ca and Mg present in the rock. Calcium and magnesium are present in rocks - but rarely as oxides where the reactions would be simply:
CaO + → CaCO3
MgO + CO2 → MgCO3
However silicate minerals of these elements are common in many rocks, such as basalt, so an example reaction might be:
Mg2SiO4 + 2CO2 → 2MgCO3 + SiO2
as a result CO2 is locked away with no dangerous byproducts.
Drilling and injecting carbonated water at high pressure into basaltic rocks at Hellisheiði has been estimated to cost less than $25 a ton.
Official source
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