Microbial and Chemical Enhancement of In-Situ Carbon Mineralization in Geological Formation

Technical Report · Sun Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1126713· OSTI ID:1126713

Park, Ah-Hyung Alissa ^[1]; Matter, J. ^[2]; Chandran, K. ^[2]

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1. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); The Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York Inc
2. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)

Predictions of global energy usage suggest a continued increase in carbon emissions and rising concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere unless major changes are made to the way energy is produced and used. Various carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are currently being developed, but unfortunately little is known regarding the fundamental characteristics of CO₂-mineral reactions to allow a viable in-situ carbon mineralization that would provide the most permanent and safe storage of geologically-injected CO₂. The ultimate goal of this research project was to develop a microbial and chemical enhancement scheme for in-situ carbon mineralization in geologic formations in order to achieve long-term stability of injected CO₂. Thermodynamic and kinetic studies of CO₂-mineral-brine systems were systematically performed to develop the in-situ mineral carbonation process that utilizes organic acids produced by a microbial reactor. The major participants in the project are three faculty members and their graduate and undergraduate students at the School of Engineering and Applied Science and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University: Alissa Park in Earth and Environmental Engineering & Chemical Engineering (PI), Juerg Matter in Earth and Environmental Science (Co-PI), and Kartik Chandran in Earth and Environmental Engineering (Co-PI). Two graduate students, Huangjing Zhao and Edris Taher, were trained as a part of this project as well as a number of graduate students and undergraduate students who participated part-time. Edris Taher received his MS degree in 2012 and Huangjing Zhao will defend his PhD on Jan. 15th, 2014. The interdisciplinary training provided by this project was valuable to those students who are entering into the workforce in the United States. Furthermore, the findings from this study were and will be published in referred journals to disseminate the results. The list of the papers is given at the end of the report for reference.

• Research Organization: Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FE0002389
• OSTI ID: 1126713
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES