Western nickel in Australia is one of many mines that can use micro -waves to store carbon dioxide in rock waste
BHP
Mining generates billions of tons of rock waste every year. If it is possible to manufacture piles of unused rocks to interact with carbon dioxide, it may help remove large amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. However, the current methods require burning fossil fuels to cook rock at a high temperature. Carbon startup now found that these rocks that make these rocks can make them interact with carbon dioxide using fewer energy.
“It is like a microwave popcorn,” he says. Sean Laurie In ARCA, Canada, which develops technology. Instead of heating the entire rocks, only micro -waves are heated certain particles – it is not different from how the kitchen microwave appears by heating the water inside the nucleus.
An increasing number of companies are used to remove carbon dioxide from the air in order to compensate for emissions from burning fossil fuels. Some of these improved rocky rock projects spread the crushed volcanic rocks on farms, where they manufacture carbon dioxide while dissolving them; Others inject carbon dioxide into similar underground rocks. A number of companies, including ARCA, aim to use the remaining mines from mineral extraction such as nickel and chrome.
These minerals often occur in raw materials filled with sapinin metals, which are rich in magnesium that interact with carbon dioxide. According to analysis By Arca, there are currently about 28 billion tons of this waste all over the world, with 3 billion tons that are produced every year. They estimate that current waste can store up to 8.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to about two years of American emissions.
But these sapinin rocks do not react quickly when natural pressure and temperature on the surface. Heating rocks to high temperatures makes them more interactive, which increases their ability to talted carbon dioxide. But this usually requires burning fossil fuels to generate heat.
He says that the use of fine waves to heat the rock can provide some advantages. Peter Sherman In Arca. Instead of burning fuel to generate heat, the process can be run by clean electricity and the use of energy less than the treatment of rocks directly with heat. Also, it will not take a long time to treat rocks. This means that it may be easier for mining companies to add a step to save the microwave while treating waste, although it may also act as an independent system, he says.
According to Patent file From the company, Scheurmann and his colleagues in Arca found Serbin with microwave faces for several minutes, strengthening its interaction with carbon dioxide, causing chemical change at a lower temperature and using less energy than thermal remedies.
“By giving rock energy, you crash the links within its structure and free magnesium” to respond with carbon dioxide, he says Scheuermann. It also shows the reaction of the treatment treated with carbon dioxide more than unaccurable rocks, which leads to the gas adjustment more quickly.
“The improvement they show here seems very exciting,” he says. Rafael Santos At the University of Gilf in Canada, who reviewed the submission of patents. However, he says it is difficult to know from the document alone the amount of treatment from Serbin by the microwave, and how these results will be translated into a realistic environment.
Scheurmann has not provided more specific numbers about the amount of expectation that the processing of the microwave will change the amount of carbon dioxide that can be captured with the Serbin, but it says, “It is a radical increase.
The company only tested the approach in the laboratory and has not yet spoken any of 700 tons From Co2 Removal has been sold so far. But Scheurmann says that the restricted version will include feeding rocks through a waterfall or a conveyor belt where they pass through the microwave field before it is deposited on the dispute storage site. The company has also developed an independent Rover that could cut waste to increase exposure to air to the maximum. Once the reaction is complete, a new layer of waste will be placed.
“With this processing with micro -waves, you open a much larger potential to store carbon dioxide,” he says. Queen Miller In the National Laboratory in the northwest of the Pacific Ocean in Washington State. “It’s exciting.” The treatment can also help extract more nickel, which is a major metal in batteries, from the rock.
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