The Challenge

The Challenge

OR: The need for negative CO2 emissions.

Negative emission technologies are essential to limit global change

[from Fuss et al. 2014]

Preventing the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will not be enough to meet set climate targets (The Paris Agreement, UNFCCC). All parties at the 2015 climate summit in Paris committed themselves to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 °C, in fact to below 1.5 °C, which necessitates that global CO2 emissions become negative by 2070. Active removal of CO2 using negative emissions technologies (NETs) will be essential to achieve this, in addition to conventional mitigation, i.e., preventing CO2 and other greenhouse gases from being released to the atmosphere.

Emerging negative emissions technologies (NETs)

[adapted from Minx et al. 2017]

There are numerous NETs which have been proposed to help reduce emissions but none have been well studied so far. Such technologies include, but are not limited to, afforestation and reforestation, bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS), direct air capture (DAC), biochar and soil carbon sequestration (SCS), the fertilization of the oceans as well as enhanced weathering (Minx et al., 2017).

Read more on NETs:

The Idea

When silicate minerals are chemically weathered, a slow dissolution process is initiated. By artificially increasing the weathering rate of silicate minerals, ESW aims to speed up the natural CO2 neutralization process.

The Project

The key scientific challenge of the project is to examine the economic viability and environmental
feasibility
of this new, innovative NET: ESW integrated into coastal zone management, i.e., coastal ESW.

The Infrastructure

Unique mesocosm facilities enable to closely track the silicate dissolution dynamics in a natural setting, while offering the possibility to test different application scenarios. Ideal for studying coastal ESW!


Collaboration?

New collaborative project ideas?
Are you a student looking for a MSc or PhD project?

Contact us here

News

Check out the latest news of the Project here.

Read and watch here

Publications

Check out the latest publications on enhanced silicate weathering.

Read more here


About Us

Prof. Filip Meysman heads Belgian’s research on coastal enhanced silicate weathering.

More About Us

Get In Touch

Email:
coastalesw(at)gmail.com
Telephone:
+32 494 06 43 27

Drop By

University of Antwerp
Campus Drie Eiken
Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium

Direction and Maps


%d bloggers like this: