CCS Mineralisation

• Detailed study of availability and distribution of suitable materials to economically capture and store CO₂ emissions
• Abundance of materials to meet mitigation targets
• Challenges remain to make the process economically attractive and to reduce its energy use

This £1m project, launched in May 2010 carried out a detailed study of the availability and distribution of suitable minerals across the UK along with studying the technologies that could be used to economically capture and store CO₂ emissions. CCS by mineralisation has been identified by leading researchers as a promising additional method of sequestering CO₂ emissions. Minerals and CO₂ can react together to permanently store CO₂ as a solid carbonate product, which can then be safely stored, used as an aggregate or turned into useful end products such as bricks or filler for concrete.

The project consortium involved Caterpillar, British Geological Survey and the University of Nottingham.

The objective was to investigate the potential for CCS Mineralisation to mitigate at least 2% of current UK CO₂ emissions and 2% of worldwide emissions over a 100-year period. The project has found that there is an abundance of suitable minerals available in the UK and worldwide to meet these mitigation targets. However, challenges remain to make the capture process economically attractive and to reduce its energy use. Significant niche opportunities exist where waste materials are used as feedstock and/or the process produces value-added products, but markets would not be at the level required to meet the mitigation targets.