Why Iceland's Reykjavik Carbfix Project needs to switch to making Fuel from Carbon Dioxide

Carbon sequestering just got very interesting, as it may potentially be a source of future fuel.

A study done of Iceland's Reykjavik Carbfix Project has discovered that Carbon can be mineralized into carbonates in volcanic rock as reported in “A Power Plant in Iceland Deals with Carbon Dioxide by Turning It into Rock”, published June 9 2016 by Ryan Cross, Technology Review.

Iceland has lots of basaltic rock, into which the Reykjavik's Carbfix Project pumps the 40,000 tons per annum worth of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S) produced by their Hellisheidi Geothemal plant with water. Carbfix plans to store some 5,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) underground per year, making this the largest Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Sequestering project of its kind.

So why is Iceland's Reykjavik Carbfix Project doing this?

Iceland's Reykjavik Carbfix Project – Carbon Dioxide into Carbonates

The process involves pumping Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S) produced by their Hellisheidi Geothemal plant with into the basaltic rock. The researchers discovered that the mixture reacted with the iron, magnesium and calcium in the rock and under pressure, formed carbonate salts.

This is a big improvement on previous Carbon sequestering project, which just simply pump carbon into old used oil well. The Carbon Dioxide (CO₂), under pressure, instead of becoming a solid becomes a supercritical liquid and stays trapped underground, effectively Dry Ice.

This method, which started sometime before 2010, is not only has a lower risk of this happening as according to the study, 95% of the Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) reacts with the rock becoming carbonate salts in less than two (2) years.

Not only that, basaltic rock makes up 10% of continental land, so there is plenty of spot to use for carbon sequestering. Also, albeit the process uses 25 tons of per ton of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂), seawater can be used. Thus such Carbon Sequestering plants can be located close to the sea to use the plentiful seawater.

This translates to a cost of US$30 to trap Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S) in the basaltic rock, which is cheaper that the US$65 to US$100 cost of pother Carbon sequestering methods. The gases are simply pressurized and pumped into the rock with hot water without the need to purify the gas, thereby contributing to this significantly lower cost.

Despite this, there are some fundamental flaws in Iceland's Reykjavik Carbfix Project

Carbon Sequestering to Carbonate Salts – Carbon Dioxide best used for Fuel and Fertilizer

However, there is a risk that some of that Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) might escape through cracks back to the surface, as it might not stay trapped for longer than a few hundred years at best.

My main problem with this process is still the usage of seawater, which contains valuable mineral salts such as Manganese, potassium and uranium, which basically makes Nuclear Reactors renewable as noted in the article “Uranium Extraction from Seawater Takes a Major Step Forward”, published July 1 2016 by Jennifer Hackett, The Scientific American.

Also, seawater can be purified via Solar Desalination to make potable water as will be demonstrated by the Solar Desalinaton plant being constructed by the Saudi Arabian Government at Al Khafji city as explained in my blog article entitled “How Saudi Arabian Solar Desalination and Solar Distillation can compete with Traditional Water”.

Finally, there is the developement of agricultural plants that have been genetically modified to use Salt water, such as the transgenic Dasheen developed by CARDI (Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute) as detailed in my blog article entitled “How CARDI's Salt Water loving Dasheen and Agricultural Towers can help Pacific islands and Jamaica during Drought”.

I'd personally prefer if the Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) were converted to fuel using the Fischer–Tropsch Process developed by Sunfire GmbH as detailed in my blog article entitled “Sunfire GmbH Fischer–Tropsch SynGas Power to Liquid Technology produces Diesel, Kerosene and Gasoline”.

Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S) converted to Carbon and Sulphide salts is a great idea. Even better idea is to convert it into fuel for vehicles or fertilizer for Agriculture.

Here’s the link:

The CarbFix Project