CO₂ STORAGE WITH BIOMINERALISATION

The exhibit was developed in collaboration with Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich. The basalt was provided on loan by the Earth Sciences Collection at ETH Zurich.

INVOLVED RESEARCH

The research groups

• Subsurface Environmental Processes, a joint working group of Eawags’s Department of Water Resources and Drinking Water and the dem Chair of Groundwater and Hydromechanics at the of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich and
• Microbial Systems Ecology, a joint working group of Eawag’s Department of Environmental Microbiology and the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics at the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich
• are investigating how flow, heterogeneity and biogeochemical processes interact underground. A particular focus of the research is on the geological storage of CO₂ and its biomineralisation: microorganisms – especially bacteria – play an important role in this process by altering the chemical conditions so that dissolved CO₂ reacts with minerals and precipitates as stable carbonate. The group is therefore investigating how microbial processes can contribute to the permanent sequestration of CO₂ underground.

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our sincere thanks to:

• Prof. Dr. Joaquin Jimenez-Martinez and Dr. Oliver Brandenberg from the research group Subsurface Environmental Processes as well as Dr. Olga Schubert from the research group Microbial Systems Ecology for providing the sandstone exhibits and producing the film on the biomineralisation of loose sand into sandstone free of charge as well as providing content support.
• Dr. Iwan Stössel from the Earth Science Collections at ETH Zurich for the free loan of the basalt with naturally mineralised calcite veins.