The Project

Negative emissions through enhanced mineral weathering in the coastal zone

an FWO-SBO project

Coastal enhanced silicate weathering (ESW) as a negative emissions technology (NET) is an approach that uses the natural process of silicate weathering for the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Advantages? A principal advantage of coastal ESW over other NETs is that it also counteracts ocean acidification and that it can be directly integrated into existing coastal management programs with existing (dredging) technology.

However, there has been no rigorous assessment of its CO₂ sequestration efficiency and environmental impact so far. These are two crucial bottlenecks that are being addressed with this project:

CO₂ Sequestration efficiency?

Determine in situ dissolution rates for coastal environments and CO₂ sequestration efficiency.

Environmental impacts of ESW?

Observe and understand positive and negative environmental impacts.

Project Goals

To conduct large-scale experiments investigating the rate of ESW and associated CO₂ uptake under realistic natural settings as well as potentially important influences on the biogeochemical cycling in coastal ecosystems (release of trace metals, alkalinity and dissolved silicate) using unique mesocosm facilities.