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On September 23, Connecting Genetics to Climate hosted Dr. Neil Dalvie for a conversation about his research on bioweathering – engineering bacteria to speed up rock weathering in contained bioreaction chambers – to address ocean acidification and capture carbon.
Starting from the rock cycle, Neil laid out how rock weathering occurs on geological timescales, how the field of enhanced rock weathering is currently doing field tests on agricultural and coastal lands with ground silicate rocks (such as olivine), and how biotechnology might accelerate rock weathering in the future.
The bacteria that Neil is engineering to be more efficient at rock weathering are designed to be in contained reaction chambers. Companies like Cytochrome are working to making these technologies scalable by essentially building water treatment facilities where seawater and alkaline rock are brought into a reaction chamber with carbon dioxide and bacteria within the bioreactor carry out the rock weathering reactions to produce alkaline seawater which can be released back into the ocean. Additionally, researchers are exploring whether other critical minerals can be “mined” and recovered during the same process. Ultimately, bioweathering technology could contribute to atmospheric carbon reduction, ocean de-acidification, and recovery of critical minerals for manufacturing applications.
Neil shared samples of olivine rock and sand, flasks of seawater with naturally-occurring diverse microbe populations and olivine rock, and plates of engineered bacteria from the lab with enhanced iron uptake (pink/red coloration). Olivine rock is a green-colored type of silicate rock that is high in magnesium and iron and weathers quickly in reaction with water and carbon dioxide to form stable carbonate minerals.
The room was at capacity with a highly engaged, all-ages audience that had so many wonderful questions including:
- What do we know about the environmental impacts of enhanced rock weathering on coastal ecosystems? What are scientists measuring to monitor impacts?
- How have communities been engaged by the companies field testing enhanced rock weathering? Here’s one example from Vesta. And how do we define communities to begin with?
- Can the engineered bacteria survive outside of reaction chambers?
- What could bioweathering technology look like at a scale to have an impact and how would we get there?
- What economic incentives or systems are needed to make scaling bioweathering technology possible?
- How would a technology like bioweathering or enhanced rock weathering be regulated?
If you weren’t able to attend the in-person event, be sure to check-out this profile of Neil and his research.
As food for thought, Neil seeded some possibilities for the contained bioweathering technology he is developing to be used in the Cambridge/Boston region at a future time when the research is further along.
What would you want to know if these technologies were coming to your community? Let us know what questions you have in the comments below!
For more on enhanced rock weathering field trials:
- Enhanced Rock Weathering explainer from the MIT Climate Portal
- Agricultural/terrestrial examples:
- Modern Farmer article by Ann Leslie Davis
- Academic opinion article by Santos et al. on enhanced rock weathering in agriculture
- Ocean/coastal example:
- Contained bioreactor example:
- Cytochrome is nearing building its first ocean water treatment facility with contained bioreactors in Los Angeles, CA
- SCAPE seeks to recover critical minerals from bioreactors
