CarbFix — Airminers Log 003

Matthew C Eshed

Published in

AirMiners

6 min readJan 29, 2018

The Hellisheidi Power Plant. Photo: Arni Saeberg

“…it’s not just something for the energy sector or heavy industry to figure out.”

Edda Aradottir, courtesy of researchgate.net

Edda Sir Aradottir, PhD, is a chemist and reservoir Engineer at Reykjavik Energy who manages of the CarbFix Project, an effort funded by the European Commission to demonstrate the potential of carbon sequestration. We caught up with her to learn more about the project.

We were excited to hear her perspective on bringing the project to greater scale. She told us, “Our biggest challenge is to bring the CarbFix methodology forwards in such a way that others will use it. We didn’t patent the method. It’s available free of charge.” We have no doubt that this project will make waves.

CarbFix is a collaborative research project led by Reykjavik Energy, that aims at developing safe, simple and economical methods and technology for permanent CO2 mineral storage in basalts. It was founded in 2007 by Reykjavík Energy, CNRS, the University of Iceland, and Columbia University. [1]

During the first phase of CarbFix from 2011–2014, the team demonstrated the process to capture and inject carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) emissions from the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant into bedrock nearby [2]. In 2016, the abstract of a paper published in Science, states “that over 95% of the CO2 injected into the CarbFix site in Iceland was mineralized to carbonate minerals in less than 2 years” [3].

This first phase involved partners the University of Iceland, The National Center for Scientific Research CNRS in Toulouse France [4], Spanish consultancy Amphos21 [5], the Nano Science Center of Copenhagen University [6], and Reykjavik Energy. Funding for the first phase came from the Seventh Framework Programme through the European Commission [7]. In 2017, the team received four years of funding through the European Union Horizon 2020 program [8].

The objective of the CarbFix2 [9] project is to optimize the capture and storage of carbon dioxide within the sea floor, with a focus on diversity of environmental conditions. More information about their objectives can be found on their website [10]. CarbFix2 partners are identical to the original CarbFix, but sub out Copenhagen University and sub in Climeworks, a direct air capture startup from Zurich, Switzerland [11]. We are excited to see Climeworks using their technology to lead the “Air Capture using waste heat” Work Package [12].

Disclaimer: This post is an interview transcription. Please accept any typos or grammatical errors as a result of our process.

Injection Wells at Hellisheidi Power Plant. Photo: Martin Stute

How did CarbFix start?

We began the CarbFix journey in 2006 when the idea was born to start researching whether we could limit the natural carbon dioxide emissions coming from our geothermal power plant. The objective was to inject the captured carbon dioxide and use processes that are already occurring in nature to mineralize the injected carbon dioxide into basalt rock formations near our power plant. We were hoping we would be able to make use of the processes; to use the methods that are already used by nature to sequester carbon dioxide. CarbFix is a collaborative project between four organizations: Reykjavik Energy, University of Iceland, Columbia University, and CNRS in France. I work for a company called Reykjavik Energy, and we are the project leader. The main operations in CarbFix are one of our power plants, a geothermal power plant located close to Reykjavik.

How do you measure success?

We measure success by how many tons per year we capture and sequester. Also, since this is a collaborative project with research institutes both here in Europe and in the US, we put a lot of emphasis on training future scientists. This enables future scientists to deal with climate change and develop solutions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We’ve been able to train close to twenty graduate students on these specific tasks. They’re able to bring what we’re doing into the future and hopefully improve it even more.

How much carbon dioxide did CarbFix sequester this past year?

We are currently capturing about one third of our carbon dioxide emissions. This is around 10,000 tons per year.

What is your scale-up plan?

We started at small scale in 2012 when we captured about 2% of the emissions from the geothermal power plant. Geothermal power plants use heat from the ground. We bring up a mixture of steam and geothermal fluids. 0.5% is geothermal gases, and carbon dioxide is the most prominent element. We carried out an extensive monitoring program assessing the fate of the injected carbon dioxide. It turns out that the process is working, and in less than two years, we were able to demonstrate that what we injected turned into stone through this natural sequestering process. We began industrial scale capture in 2014. We doubled that capacity last year. Now, we have four out of six high-pressure turbines linked to the gas separation station, located next to the power plant. We are capturing a significant amount of the otherwise emitted carbon dioxide. A byproduct of this is we are also able to capture hydrogen sulfide, another environmentally important gas coming from the power plant through the same process. In Iceland we have a limit on what the hydrogen sulfide concentration can be, which serves as an incentive to scale up more rapidly than we would have done otherwise. Iceland imports carbon dioxide for beverage making, so this might be a business opportunity as well.

What is your biggest challenge?

Our biggest challenge is to bring the Carbfix methodology forwards in such a way that others will use it. We didn’t patent the method. It’s available free of charge. We published it and anyone can use it. But the incentive is lacking, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are still rising. The biggest challenge from an industrial perspective is there still is a very low price on carbon. There is not a big enough incentive for carbon dioxide emitting industries to adopt methods that have been developed. There are several methods that are financially viable that can be used to significantly bring down carbon dioxide emissions from industry and the power sector. This is a political issue that needs to be resolved quickly.

What would be a big win in the next five years?

I think the carbon tax is one of the most important tasks we need to solve. Of course we all want to limit the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But the sooner we can get everyone on board, it’s not just something for the energy sector or heavy industry to figure out. We have to really bring it down to the individual level. It’s a matter of what makes sense in different parts of the world. There is no one solution to climate change and rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Core from injection site showing CO2 bearing carbonate minerals within basaltic host rock. Photo: Sandra O Snaebjornsdottir

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The first version of airminers.org [13], launched on 15 Nov 2017, is a view of the activity in carbon sequestration through an economic lens. Our mission is to scale carbon extraction projects by connecting stakeholders throughout carbon capture, sequestration, and product for development projects.

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