Enhanced Rock Weathering

Enhanced Rock Weathering Latest News

Recently, big business with tech giants, airlines and fast fashion firms lining up to buy carbon credits from enhanced rock weathering (ERW) projects.  

About Enhanced Rock Weathering

• It aims to speed up the natural capture and storage of carbon dioxide — a planet-warming greenhouse gas — and also to turbocharge a natural geological process called weathering.
• Weathering is the breakdown of rocks by carbonic acid, which forms when carbon dioxide in the air or soil dissolves into water.
• Weathering occurs naturally when rain falls on rocks, and the process can lock away carbon dioxide from the air or soil as bicarbonate, and eventually limestone.
• ERW speeds the process up by using quick-weathering rocks like basalt that are ground finely to increase their surface area.
• Projects are happening in most parts of the world, including Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia.

‹ ›

Effectiveness of Enhanced Rock Weathering

• Its rates depend on variables including rock type and size, how wet and hot the climate is, soil type and land management.
• The added rock increases soil alkalinity, which can boost crop growth, soil nutrients and soil formation.
• Basalt is both naturally abundant and often available as a byproduct of quarrying, lowering the costs of the process.
• Experts note that even if the rock reacts with other acids in the soil, failing to lock away carbon dioxide at that stage, it can still have planetary benefits.
• That is because acids in the soil would otherwise eventually wash into rivers and the sea, where acidification leads to the release of carbon dioxide.
• It prevents carbon dioxide being released from the water into the atmosphere downstream.
• Issue with ERW: Some quick-weathering rocks have high levels of potentially poisonous heavy metals.

Source: TH