US researchers unveil low-cost, high-impact CO2 capture solution for cooler future

US Stanford University researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking, low-energy method to capture CO2 from the atmosphere using heated minerals—a discovery that could revolutionize carbon removal and accelerate the fight against climate change. 

A team of researchers at Stanford University has developed an innovative, low-energy process to capture atmospheric CO2 using heated minerals—offering a potentially game-changing solution in the fight against climate change, a team of researchers has released an article via SciTechDaily.

This new technique accelerates the natural weathering process, creating highly reactive materials that absorb carbon dioxide at unprecedented rates. This scalable approach could be integrated into agriculture and industry, not only helping to remove carbon but also enhancing soil health and boosting crop growth.

Stanford chemists have unveiled a cost-effective and practical method to permanently eliminate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This breakthrough could become a critical tool in combating global warming.

The process involves using heat to modify common silicate minerals, turning them into materials capable of naturally absorbing and storing CO2. These materials can be produced in standard kilns—similar to those used in cement manufacturing—making the technology both affordable and accessible.

"The Earth has an inexhaustible supply of minerals that are capable of removing CO2 from the atmosphere, but they just don’t react fast enough on their own to counteract human greenhouse gas emissions," said Matthew Kanan, a chemistry professor at Stanford and the senior author of the study published in Nature. "Our work solves this problem in a way that we think is uniquely scalable."

In nature, silicate minerals react with water and atmospheric CO2, forming stable bicarbonate ions and solid carbonate minerals—a process known as weathering. However, this process can take hundreds to thousands of years. Since the 1990s, scientists have been seeking ways to accelerate this natural reaction to capture carbon more rapidly.

Kanan, together with Stanford postdoctoral scholar Yuxuan Chen, developed and tested a new method in the lab to transform slow-weathering silicates into more reactive minerals that capture and store atmospheric carbon quickly. This breakthrough has garnered support from a grant from the Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, helping to bring the research closer to real-world applications.

“We envisioned a new chemistry to activate the inert silicate minerals through a simple ion-exchange reaction,” said Chen, the lead author of the study, who developed the technique while earning a PhD in chemistry in Kanan’s lab. “We didn’t expect that it would work as well as it does.”

As experts emphasize, tackling global warming will require both drastic reductions in fossil fuel use and the permanent removal of billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. While numerous carbon removal technologies are emerging, many remain costly, energy-intensive, or both, with limited proven scalability.

One of the most talked-about technologies is direct air capture, which uses large fans to filter CO2 from the air via chemical processes. However, Kanan's team believes their method is a more energy-efficient alternative.

“Our process would require less than half the energy used by leading direct air capture technologies, and we think we can be very competitive from a cost point of view,” said Kanan, who is also a senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

As carbon removal becomes an essential component of global climate strategies, this breakthrough from Stanford could provide an accessible, affordable, and scalable solution to help reverse the effects of climate change.

By Naila Huseynova