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Energy Resources and Carbon Management

Carbon Removal & Mineralization Program

LBNL’s Carbon Removal and Mineralization Program is focused towards performing fundamental and applied earth science research relevant to capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere and durably storing it in geologic, bio-based and ocean reservoirs or in value-added products to create negative emissions.

Highlights

Project

Coastal Wetland Restoration a Nature Based Decarbonization Multi-Benefit Climate Mitigation Solution

Nature-based solutions for climate mitigation, such as restoring wetlands, can help decrease atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, slow climatic and environmental change (nature-based decarbonization solution) while providing additional ecosystem services to coastal communities. This project aims to (1) delineate the natural processes and management practices within wetlands that control C dynamics, and (2) integrate environmental…

Project

Enhanced Weathering via Soil Amendments for Negative Carbon Emissions

Weathering of geological materials is well known to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it to mineral carbonates and soluble carbonate and bicarbonate species.  Enhancing the rate at which those materials weather will clearly increase the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. The key knowledge gaps associated with these processes include the magnitude of...

Project

Impact of Biochar Amendments on Soil Water and Plant Dynamics under different climatic years and agronomic practices

Negative carbon emissions from agricultural soils have been stressed as important but yet understudied piece to combat climate change. Similarly, the inclusion of waste-derived material, such as biochar in crop production is viewed as a natural climatic solution to mitigate CO2 emissions in addition to promoting soil health. These positive benefits of biochar are attributed...

Project

Silicate Rock Amendments for Reduced Methane Emissions and Increased Carbon Storage in Rice Fields

This project aims to evaluate whether addition of silicate materials (rock dust and/or clean industrial by-products) to rice agriculture can have two simultaneously climate benefits, namely decreasing methane emissions while increasing soil carbon storage. The work proposed herein focuses on three tasks: 1) mesocosm experiments for evaluating key variables; 2) reactive transport modeling for process…

Program Overview

LBNL’s Carbon Removal and Mineralization Program is focused towards performing fundamental and applied earth science research relevant to capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere and durably storing it in geologic, bio-based and ocean reservoirs or in value-added products to create negative emissions. Key topics of interest to the program include cost benefit analysis, enhanced weathering (e.g., surficial applications), ocean alkalization to conversion and use of products (e.g., low-carbon concrete).

To tackle this wide array of interest, projects in this Program Domain envision a close interaction with Carbon Storage and other associated programs. The program itself builds upon significant laboratory and field testing, domain knowledge and multi-scale multi-phase modeling expertise in EESA.

Featured Projects

Project

Coastal Wetland Restoration a Nature Based Decarbonization Multi-Benefit Climate Mitigation Solution

Nature-based solutions for climate mitigation, such as restoring wetlands, can help decrease atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, slow climatic and environmental change (nature-based decarbonization solution) while providing additional ecosystem services to coastal communities. This project aims to (1) delineate the natural processes and management practices within wetlands that control C dynamics, and (2) integrate environmental…

Project

Enhanced Weathering via Soil Amendments for Negative Carbon Emissions

Weathering of geological materials is well known to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it to mineral carbonates and soluble carbonate and bicarbonate species.  Enhancing the rate at which those materials weather will clearly increase the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. The key knowledge gaps associated with these processes include the magnitude of...

Project

Impact of Biochar Amendments on Soil Water and Plant Dynamics under different climatic years and agronomic practices

Negative carbon emissions from agricultural soils have been stressed as important but yet understudied piece to combat climate change. Similarly, the inclusion of waste-derived material, such as biochar in crop production is viewed as a natural climatic solution to mitigate CO2 emissions in addition to promoting soil health. These positive benefits of biochar are attributed...

Project

Silicate Rock Amendments for Reduced Methane Emissions and Increased Carbon Storage in Rice Fields

This project aims to evaluate whether addition of silicate materials (rock dust and/or clean industrial by-products) to rice agriculture can have two simultaneously climate benefits, namely decreasing methane emissions while increasing soil carbon storage. The work proposed herein focuses on three tasks: 1) mesocosm experiments for evaluating key variables; 2) reactive transport modeling for process…