在全球用玄武岩處理二氧化碳排放
BBC News –Scientists think they have found a smart way to constrain carbon dioxide emissions - just turn them to stone. The researchers report an experiment in Iceland where they have pumped CO2 and water underground into volcanic rock. Reactions with the minerals in the deep basalts convert the carbon dioxide to a stable, immobile chalky solid.
BBC新聞 – 科學家認爲，他們發現了一種遏制二氧化碳排放的聰明方法 – 把它們變成石頭。研究人員報告了在冰島做的一次實驗，他們把二氧化碳和地下水泵入火山岩。與地下深處玄武岩中的礦物質發生的反應，把二氧化碳轉化成了穩定不動的白堊狀固體。
Even more encouraging, the team writes in Science magazine, is the speed at which this process occurs: on the order of months. "Of our 220 tonnes of injected CO2, 95% was converted to limestone in less than two years," said lead author Juerg Matter from Southampton University, UK.
該團隊在《科學》雜誌發表報告說，更鼓舞人心的是這個過程發生的速度：大約幾個月。“我們注入的220噸二氧化碳中，95%不到兩年就轉化成了石灰岩。”報告的主要作者，來自英國南安普頓大學的馬特說。
With carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere marching ever upwards and warming the planet, researchers are keen to investigate so called "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) solutions.
隨着大氣中的二氧化碳濃度持續上升，令地球升溫，研究人員熱衷於探討所謂的“碳捕捉與封存”（CCS）解決方案。
Previous experiments have seen pure CO2 injected into sandstone, or deep, salty aquifers. Chosen sites - which have included disused oil and gas wells - have relied on layers of impermeable capping rocks to hold down the carbon dioxide. But the fear is always that the CO2 could find a way to leak back out into the atmosphere.
此前的實驗是把純二氧化碳注入砂岩，或深部鹹水層。廢棄的油井和氣井等中選場地依靠不透水的蓋層岩石地層壓縮二氧化碳。但一直令人擔心的是，二氧化碳可能奪路而出，回漏到大氣中。
Working with a geothermal power plant, the Carbfix project on Iceland combined the waste CO2 with water to make a slightly acidic liquid that was then sent hundreds of metres down into the volcanic basalts that make up so much of the North Atlantic island.
在冰島進行的這個固碳項目與一座地熱電站合作，把二氧化碳廢氣與水結合，製成弱酸性液體，然後輸送到地下幾百米的火山玄武岩 - 這些岩石在這座北大西洋島國是如此豐富。
The low pH water (3.2) worked to dissolve the calcium and magnesium ions in the basalts, which then reacted with the carbon dioxide to make calcium and magnesium carbonates. Cores drilled into the experimental site pulled up rock with the tell-tale white carbonates occupying the pore spaces.
PH值3.2的酸性水分解玄武岩中的鈣鎂離子，然後與二氧化碳發生反應，產生碳酸鈣和碳酸鎂。從實驗地點鑽探岩心取出岩石，明顯可見白色的碳酸鹽佔據了孔隙空間。
The researchers also tagged the CO2 with carbon-14, a radioactive form of the element. In this way, they were able to tell if any of the injected CO2 was leaking back to the surface or finding its way out through a distant watercourse. No such escape was detected.
研究人員還用碳元素的放射性形式碳14標記二氧化碳。用這種方法，他們能夠斷定注入的二氧化碳是否回漏到表層，或通過長距離水道找到了出路。但並未探測到這種逃逸。
"This means that we can pump down large amounts of CO2 and store it in a very safe way over a very short period of time," said study co-author Martin Stute from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, US.
“這意味着我們可在非常短的時間內把大量二氧化碳泵入地下，用非常安全的方式封存它。”研究報告的共同作者，來自美國哥倫比亞大學拉蒙.多哈提地球觀測站的司徒特說。
