Applying ground-up silicate rock to Midwestern farm fields can capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide and prevent it from accumulating in the atmosphere, according to a new study that successfully quantified those climate benefits for the first time.
Traditional row-crop agriculture releases sizable amounts of soil-derived carbon to the atmosphere as CO, a greenhouse gas that is a primary driver of climate change. With enhanced weathering, silicate rock is applied to farmland to capture that carbon before it reaches the atmosphere. As the rock weathers, calcium and magnesium are released and react with dissolved COto produce bicarbonate, essentially locking up the gas and redirecting it harmlessly into groundwater.
. Our results suggest that basalt application to farms could be a win-win for farmers and for the planet, improving yields and drawing down CO," said study co-author Evan DeLucia, Director Emeritus at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment , G. William Arends Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology, and Co-Investigator at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation at Illinois.
The work is part of iSEE's partnership with the Leverhulme Center at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, which is investigating enhanced weathering for carbon dioxide removal in field sites around the world: Malaysia, Australia, the U.K., and the United States. Grinding the basalt accelerates a natural weathering process that involves two chemical reactions. First, atmospheric COdissolves in rainwater to create carbonic acid. Then, the acid reacts with the rock dust in the soil to form bicarbonate, a soluble compound that leaches withfrom the atmosphere to the water cycle, where it can pass harmlessly into waterways and potentially help fight ocean acidification.
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