Engineered bacteria offer a new way to accelerate rock weathering for carbon removal
Rock weathering, the breakdown and dissolving of rocks and minerals caused by their exposure to water, air and biological life, is a major regulator of Earth's atmospheric CO2 levels and climate. Throughout Earth's history, rock weathering has been faster during warm periods with increased atmospheric CO2 levels.
Scientists at Harvard University and Stanford University have engineered bacteria to accelerate the natural process of rock weathering, which draws carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Rock weathering, a slow process that occurs over hundreds of thousands of years, is a key regulator of Earth's climate. By genetically modifying the marine bacterium Alteromonas macleodii, researchers have created a strain that produces higher amounts of siderophores - molecules that extract iron from silicate minerals, speeding up the weathering of olivine.
In customized bioreactors, the engineered bacterium increased the weathering of olivine by 2.6 times, removing more CO2 from the atmosphere. The study, published in Nature Biotechnology, could potentially be implemented in various locations for carbon removal.
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