Sessions
Join us at ERW25, the third annual Enhanced Rock Weathering Conference, held at the University of Antwerp. This conference brings together experts in the field to discuss a wide range of topics such as weathering processes and CO2 removal, environmental effects, costs and implementation aspects. Presentations will focus on five main research topics, these five sessions provide the main structure for the ERW25 conference.
Session 1: Terrestrial enhanced weathering
Enhanced weathering techniques in terrestrial conditions must strike a balance between preserving, or increasing, agricultural productivity or natural ecosystems while supporting climate mitigation. This session focuses on innovative research examining the benefits and risks of enhanced rock weathering on land. We invite contributions that explore current methodologies and findings to promote sustainable land management practices. We especially encourage studies on ERW impacts on organic carbon dynamics.
Session 2: Novel methods & Engineering-based approaches
A wide variety of experimental approaches are currently used to evaluate carbon removal rates (CDR) of ERW. Experiments exploring novel methods are being conducted in both controlled settings (e.g. reactors) and natural environments. This session invites submissions on innovative technologies for accelerating mineral dissolution, integrating CDR techniques, and engineering solutions across ecosystems, aiming to showcase breakthrough methods that optimize ERW as a scalable climate change solution.
Session 3: Enhanced rock weathering at scale: life cycle assessments, policy frameworks, and societal perspectives
Public awareness, balance between (carbon) costs and profits, and science-based policy making will be crucial to ensure successful upscaling of ERW. This session discusses current policies, along with those required in the future, to regulate and/or promote ERW at national and international levels. Additionally, this session will explore the ethics and feasibility of ERW, including how its benefits and burdens can be evaluated using LCA analyses and be distributed among stakeholders and decision-makers.
Session 4: Advancing MRV practices for enhanced rock weathering
Accurate assessment of the achieved net carbon removal through ERW remains challenging and heavily debated. In order to achieve reliable quantification of carbon removal efficiencies and for implementation of a science-based carbon credit system, the establishment of a rigorous and standardized MRV framework is crucial. This session will explore the latest advancements, challenges, and future needs for MRV of terrestrial and marine ERW.
Session 5: Mineral-based ocean alkalinity enhancement
A wide portfolio of minerals and industrial by-products are being considered for increasing ocean CO₂ sequestration by ocean alkalinity enhancement. Yet the ecological impacts and CO₂ sequestration potential of these various minerals remains largely unknown. By combining insights from geochemical and ecological experimental research, this session will explore the scalability of mineral-based ocean alkalinity enhancement and its impacts on global carbon budgets and marine ecosystems.
Invited speakers
Proud to already announce these four invited speakers. Make sure to follow us as more will be announced in the upcoming weeks.
| Christiana Dietzen leads the Agriculture Section of the Globe Institute's Centre for Glacial Rock Flour Research. She studies the potential for carbon sequestration via enhanced weathering as a result of glacial rock flour applications to agricultural soils, as well as glacial rock flour's ability to improve crop yields by providing plant nutrients. |
| Maria-Elena Vorrath is a postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Hamburg. She is an expert on enhanced rock weathering, passionate about geosciences and climate action and does not accept the status quo. |
| Laura Bastianini is an experimental geochemist who received her doctorate from the University of Hull (UK) where she investigated the relationship between minerals and waters at alkaline waste sites. Currently, she works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Heriot-Watt University in Greenhouse Gas Removal within the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions to study the geochemical kinetics of hydrated carbonates and their stability in air and seawater aiming ocean alkalinity enhancement. Her research expertise includes water quality testing, monitoring transient carbonate minerals, hyperalkaline steel slag leachates, carbonate sedimentology and a range of different techniques such as FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, SEM, and petrographic microscopy. She is one of the first researchers who stands at the interface of carbonate geochemistry and environmental science, and she has pioneered research in this area during her career. |
| Ella Holme is a carbon revoval scientist representing Isometric. Isometric is a carbon credit certification platform with a mission to rebuild trust in carbon markets. They specialize in carbon credit certification so companies can easily buy the world’s most scientifically rigorous carbon credits to meet their climate commitments. |
| Prof Phil Renforth combines skills in civil and process engineering, engineering geology, and geochemistry to investigate methods of atmospheric CO2 removal through reaction with rocks and minerals. This includes connecting experimental work from bench-top to pilot scale, with technology and environmental impact assessment. In 2019 he co-founded and now co-chief edits of the world’s first dedicated publication on carbon removal (Frontiers in Climate: Negative Emission Technologies) and was the science coordinator for the UK’s Greenhouse Gas Removal Research Programme (2020-2022). He was a contributing author to Chapter 12 of Working Group III 6th Assessment Report from the IPCC. |