Basalt Formations Offer Hope of Secure CO2 Sequestration

Amid debates about the feasibility of CO2 capture and sequestration, one nagging concern is that the sequestered gas could escape. Basalt’s unique composition might solve that by turning the gas into rock.

Were CO2 to be injected into basalt formations, suggest scientists at Rutgers University, a series of chemical reactions would ultimately combine the gas with calcium to form calcium carbonate, otherwise known as limestone.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that basalt formations could be the "ultimate repository" for excess carbon.

How long this process would take in practice is still being studied. But researchers suggest that undersea basalt formations off the U.S. East Coast could be ideal storage sites, covered as they are by hundreds of feet of sediment that would help trap the gas as it underwent the necessary reactions.

Basalt injection has only been studied on a small scale thus far, but this month researchers in Europe will launch a commercial scale pilot project at a geothermal plant owned by Reykjavik Energy. Meanwhile, U.S. researchers await approval for a test injection of 1000 tons of CO2 into a basalt formation in southeastern Washington State.

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