Active Climate, Earth & Environment Clean Energy

Quantification of carbon sequestration during enhanced weathering: A novel trace elemental and isotopic approach

Funder EPSRC (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Cardiff University Source-published name: Cardiff University
Funding Not disclosed
Period Mar 2025 — Sept 2028

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Spreading crushed basalt on farmland pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and locks it away in solid minerals, but no one has yet been able to measure exactly how much CO₂ this process actually removes. The problem is that enhanced rock weathering happens slowly and across vast areas, making it nearly impossible to distinguish the carbon captured from the atmosphere from carbon already present in the soil or released by other natural processes. Without a reliable measurement method, companies and governments cannot verify whether this technique genuinely offsets their emissions or simply claims to do so. This project will develop new trace-element and isotopic techniques to precisely quantify the atmospheric CO₂ drawdown, then compare those results with natural high-weathering systems in places like Iceland and Hawaii. If the methods succeed, they could provide the first credible, auditable accounting for enhanced weathering as a carbon offset tool. That would allow regulators, carbon markets, and infrastructure operators to treat ERW as a verifiable component of national net-zero strategies—turning a promising idea into a measurable, trustworthy climate solution.

View original technical description
Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) involves the removal of atmospheric CO2 during silicate weathering of fine-grained basalt, which is spread on agricultural land. This process enhances natural weathering rates and thus the drawdown of atmospheric CO2 via associated rock carbonation reactions. The major challenge with ERW is how to measure and precisely quantify the amount of atmospheric CO2 removed and stored during the process. This project will aim to develop novel methods to quantify the drawdown of atmospheric CO2 and compare this with the CO2 budget of natural high weathering rate systems. The main objective of the project is to assess the viability of ERW as a long-term carbon offsetting tool. The student will work closely with UNDO, the industry partner, and have access to an exclusive range of samples from their large scale and long term global basalt spreading test sites. The student will be involved in sample collection from UNDOs test sites and other field missions to investigate and sample analogous natural systems, such as basaltic terranes with naturally high weathering rates (e.g The Azores, Iceland and Hawaii). Together this will be used to construct a carbon model and budget for the long-term contribution of ERW with the ultimate goal of assessing the suitability of the ERW technique as a tool to combat the global climate crisis.

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Researchers

Merula Penning (Student)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Quantifying the true carbon removal potential of enhanced rock weathering
Adventures in carbon neutral farming: mitigating potent greenhouse gas emissions from soils with rock dust
Accelerated carbon dioxide release from sedimentary rocks in a warming world
Assessing the biological response to changes in ocean chemistry from increased weathering
Deciphering the hydro-mechanical coupling and multiscale response of basaltic rocks under mineral carbonation: implications for carbon sequestration in the subsurface

Original classification

Studentship

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