Eric Verrecchia

This project fulfills the requirements of the topic Energy Future emerging technologies which covers all areas of the Theme Energy. In particular, this project aims at developing an emerging technology which consists in a new alternative sustainable solution to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

This objective fits the EU strategy to reducing greenhouse gases emissions by developing an environmentally safe carbon capture and geological storage policy. Indeed, most of the subterranean technologies consist in injecting CO2 as a gas at high pressures, leading inevitably to the possible problem of the leakage. In response to this issue, the transformation of CO2 into carbonate is now considered as an interesting solution for CO2 sequestration.

Two major options are under scrutiny. One is a physico-chemical approach in certain types of rocks. The other one is based on the abilities of a number of bacteria to precipitate carbonates, which in turn extends the geological sequestration opportunities beyond the strict deep underground ones.

This project targets bacterial metabolic pathways enabling significant carbonate precipitation. In particular, CO2SolStock specific objectives are:

• To explore emerging alternative sustainable solutions related to microbiological pathways of carbonatation for CO2 sequestration;
   
• To map out a scientific evaluation of the various routes and promises, from the surface to the deepest habitats;
   
• To establish a tool-kit enabling scientific evaluation;
   
• To validate the technology with at least 2 validated proof of concept tests for bacterial metabolism supported CO2 sequestration.

The work programme consists in 7 WPs from literature scrutiny to demonstration, with transversal dissemination and management tasks. Outputs comprises tool-kit for bio-based stock tailored for various habitats and at least 2 systems ready for development towards industrial applications.