Crushing and processing rocks is a common process in construction. Now research suggests that approximately 0.5% of global carbon emissions could be captured during this process—by crushing rocks in CO2 gas.
A paper recently published in Nature Sustainability suggests that almost no additional energy would be required, while the amount of carbon capture would be equivalent to planting a forest of trees the size of Germany.
Every year, the materials and construction industry contributes 11% to global carbon emissions. During that same year, more than 50 million tonnes of rock is crushed worldwide. Current crushing processes fail to capture any CO2.
Previous attempts at trapping carbon into single minerals was shown by the University of Strathclyde to be unstable, as the CO2 dissolves out in the presence of water.
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