Dr Ehsan Jonat / Abertay University
Funded by EPSRC
Sustainable Urban Carbon Capture: Engineering Soils for Climate Change (SUCCESS)
Funded by EPSRC, SUCCESS aims to determine the performance of soils to act as a carbon sink in order to help meet national climate mitigation targets. Soils are the greatest land-based reservoir for carbon on the planet, containing three times as much carbon as do plants. Thus soil plays a significant role in controlling atmospheric CO2 levels.
SUCCESS introduces a new method to capture and store CO2 as a permanent sink inside the soil profile. The team’s research also adds a significant CO2 capture function to artificial landscape design and soil engineering through careful use of manufactured materials. This form of CO2 sequestration is inexpensive because it is passive (energy inputs are minimised once constructed) and uses industry by-product as the main source of substrate aggregate.
The team are building a body of data by:
1. Monitoring the process of inorganic carbon capture through construction of an experimental site using a) artificial material (cement based) and b) quarried natural rocks (basalt based).
2. Monitoring CO2 sequestration at urban brownfield sites containing materials suitable for inorganic carbon capture.
3. Measuring the effect of carbonate precipitation on physical, chemical and geotechnical properties of the soils.
4. Building public acceptance of the technique through close engagement with stakeholders’ community.
The SUCCESS project created the first inorganic carbon capture garden in the UK, where the geotechnical and geochemical properties of the soil are constantly monitored to provide a better understanding of the process.
The project team is working closely with a diverse group of stakeholders – from a quarry aggregate supplier, property developer and the city council to an ecological consultancy – to achieve the project’s goals and objectives and have benefited from the stakeholders’ wide professional background to shape the direction of the project.
The team members have arranged public events to disseminate results and encourage and facilitate public acceptance of this innovative new application of the carbon capture function.
