Here’s How Science Is Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Harmless Rocks

A team of scientists based in California, United States, have come up with a brand new method to fight global warming by capturing the carbon dioxide contained in the ocean and turning it into rocks, thus curbing and even reversing the impacts emissions have on the environment.

“You’re talking about removing some 10 to 20 gigatons of [carbon dioxide] per year, starting from 2050, probably for the next century,” says Gaurav Sant, a civil and environmental engineering professor and director of the Institute for Carbon Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The idea is to run seawater through an electrified mesh; when calcium and magnesium are combined with carbon dioxide, they turn into calcite or magnesite. With the help of electricity, the chemical reactions needed to form carbonate rocks happen quicker and more efficiently, and create a useful byproduct: hydrogen gas. The team of scientists has built a prototype that collects data regarding the amount of carbon dioxide that can be removed, the efficiency of the process, and the amount of energy required to do it.