oa The Carbon Conundrum: Challenges and Road Map to Feasible Solutions

The debate around carbon emission reduction seems to be hinging on capture and storage despite limited information about suitable sites and associated risks. It is unfortunate that alternatives to underground storage have not been discussed and disseminated for public opinion. This presentation aims at demystifying the broader picture on carbon management and the associated issues. Given the current lack of progress on a large-scale carbon management, it is important to look at alternative carbon sequestration methods that carry less risk but may require further development work. In this context, carbon mineralization using a special chemical reaction approach that aims to solve two environmental problems in one solution has been studied. This approach stems from the fact that the GCC states produce fresh water from desalination processes and therefore reject huge amounts of concentrated brine into the sea and at the same time emit large amounts of CO2 from the massive hydrocarbon industries. These challenging environmental problems are the subject of a qatar national research fund project undertaken at Qatar University. The results obtained indicate that it is feasible to convert a significant amount of captured CO2 into a stable bicarbonate and at the same time reduce concentrated brine reject into the Arabian Gulf. Details of the proposed process will be presented. This is considered as a major contribution given the current status of the carbon conundrum.