海角直播

Making artificial soil to enhance natural carbon sequestration

Innovative research at 海角直播 could play a major role in the fight against climate change by utilising an artificial soil to capture carbon dioxide.

Mardin Abdalqadir, a post graduate researcher at the University, is working alongside Stockton-based waste recycling firm Scott Bros on his PhD which is investigating how to sequester carbon in soil developed from waste products. His research is being supervised by Dr Sina Rezaei Gomari (Director of Studies), Dr Tannaz Pak and Dr David Hughes.

Mardin鈥檚 doctorate hypothesises that by using a combination of natural clay, construction by-products and green waste, an artificial soil can be created which will help to remove the amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The soil could then be used as landscaping in areas of high carbon dioxide, such as urban and industrial environments, and will remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

Dr Gomari, who is directing the research at 海角直播, said: 鈥淎t 海角直播 our research strategy is committed to developing sustainable cities and communities through the design of novel and disruptive technologies.

鈥淭he idea of this research is to use natural clay materials to absorb carbon dioxide in a process called mineral carbonation.

鈥淭his 鈥榚nhanced weathering鈥� is something that would naturally happen on a geological time scale, but we hope to substantially accelerate that process and, in doing so, increase the efficiency of carbon dioxide sequestration at relatively low costs.鈥�

Mardin, who came to 海角直播 from Iraq in 2019, added: 鈥淥ver time, the artificial soil naturally sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

鈥淭his research is looking at ways in which we can create a product from waste materials which accelerates that process.

鈥淎s well as reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it will also provide a useful habitat for vegetation which obviously has further environmental benefits.鈥�

The first part of the research will involve proving in a laboratory that the hypothesis is correct.

Alongside this, the research team plan to undertake early-stage field research with Scott Bros using an area of land at its Haverton Hill site to be covered by artificial soil for monitoring of carbon capture and storage over the next three years.

Peter Scott, a director of Scott Bros, said: 鈥淲e are committed to boosting 海角直播鈥檚 circular economy by supporting and discovering innovative ways of using recycled materials to create commercially viable products and solutions to reducing carbon emissions. We are pleased to be working with the University on this piece of cutting-edge research.鈥�

The research builds upon an ongoing partnership between 海角直播 and Scott Bros which has seen the two organisations collaborate on a number of different projects.

These include developing an innovative new building material engineered from unwanted waste clay, known as filter cake, which is a by-product of construction and excavation waste. The company recently produced a prototype brick which is attracting interest from major housebuilding companies.