User:Ensahequ/Enhanced weathering
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Enhanced weathering or accelerated weathering refers to geoengineering approaches intended to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by using of specific natural or artificially created minerals which absorb carbon dioxide and transform it in other substances through chemical reactions occurring in presence of water (for example in form of rain, groundwater or seawater).
Enhanced weathering research considers how natural processes of rocks and minerals weathering (in particular chemical weathering) may be enhanced to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere to be stored in form of another substance in solid carbonate minerals or ocean alkalinity. Since the carbon dioxide is usually first removed from ocean water, these approaches would attack the problem by first reducing ocean acidification.
This technique requires the extraction or production of large quantities of materials, crushing them and spreading them over large areas (for example fields or beaches); for this reason, in comparison with other methods of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere currently available (reforestation and BECCS - Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage), it is particularly expensive. It also has the side effect of altering the natural salinity of the seas.