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Title: Microbial Catalysis for CO 2 Sequestration: A Geobiological Approach
One of the greatest threats facing the planet is the continued increase in excess greenhouse gasses, with CO2 being the primary driver due to its rapid increase in only a century. Excess CO2 is exacerbating known climate tipping points that will have cascading local and global effects including loss of biodiversity, global warming, and climate migration. However, global reduction of CO2 emissions is not enough. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will also be needed to avoid the catastrophic effects of global warming. Although the drawdown and storage of CO2 occur naturally via the coupling of the silicate and carbonate cycles, they operate over geological timescales (thousands of years). Here, we suggest that microbes can be used to accelerate this process, perhaps by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously producing potentially valuable by-products. This could provide both a sustainable pathway for global drawdown of CO2 and an environmentally benign biosynthesis of materials. We discuss several different approaches, all of which involve enhancing the rate of silicate weathering. We use the silicate mineral olivine as a case study because of its favorable weathering properties, global abundance, and growing interest in CDR applications. Extensive research is needed to determine both the upper limit of the rate of silicate dissolution and its potential to economically scale to draw down significant amounts (Mt/Gt) of CO2. Other industrial processes have successfully cultivated microbial consortia to provide valuable services at scale (e.g., wastewater treatment, anaerobic digestion, fermentation), and we argue that similar economies of scale could be achieved from this research.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2049299
PAR ID:
10525388
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Cold Spring Harbor
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
Volume:
16
Issue:
5
ISSN:
1943-0264
Page Range / eLocation ID:
a041673
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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