Lab-grown magnesite a boon for carbon sequestration?
Left undisturbed, carbonate minerals can naturally lock up carbon in a stable form for millions of years or longer. Triggering the formation of carbonate minerals is thus a promising means of removing and sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In recent research, scientists uncovered new details about how one of Earth’s most stable, albeit slow-to-form, carbonates — magnesite — grows in nature and have found a way to accelerate its formation in the lab at room temperature. The results could aid in developing efficient carbon sequestration technologies.
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New discoveries in mineralogy, one of the oldest human endeavors, are arising from a new sort of mining—data mining. Mineralogists are applying statistical models and data science techniques to reveal previously unseen patterns and clues hidden in mineralogical databases, and to find undiscovered minerals.