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Environmental feasibility of soil amendment with flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) for terrestrial carbon sequestration

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Abstract

Technologies for increasing carbon storage in soils are gathering attention as a means for mitigating atmospheric CO2 emissions. Carbon sequestration can be achieved by controlling the organic carbon stock in soil and by accelerating mineral carbonation. In this study, carbon sequestration capacity was measured in soil columns treated with flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG), a by-product of electric power generation. The feasibility of using FGDG as an environmentally benign alternative to gypsum or anhydrite was examined using a toxicity characteristic leaching procedure and Microtox bioassay. While no toxic leachate was generated from the FGDG treatment, some toxic elements in the soil were removed through absorption reactions. Test results for carbon sequestration based on unsaturated soil column experiments suggest that the application of FGDG for soil treatment holds promise of less microbial CO2 emission from soil. The net benefits of carbon sequestration from the FGDG treatment were calculated as 87 and 621 g C/m2/m of infiltrated water, for the 1 % calcite-added column and 3 % calcite-added columns, respectively. The presented test results show that the FGDG treatment for soil carbon sequestration holds a promise when it is applied to slightly alkaline soils.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under the Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 and was partially supported by Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (Research Project 16-3414).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Institutes of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Gwahang-no 124, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Young-Soo Han & Chul-Min Chon

  2. Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Tetsu K. Tokunaga & Rohit Salve

Authors
  1. Young-Soo Han
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  2. Tetsu K. Tokunaga
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  3. Rohit Salve
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  4. Chul-Min Chon
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Correspondence to Young-Soo Han.

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Supporting Information

Supplementary materials provide the detail of soil/FGDG and solid-phase sample measurement used in this study. SM Fig. 1 shows a photograph and schematic diagram of soil column. SM Table 1, SM Table 2, and SM Table 3 provide the experimental conditions of column tests, the heavy metal leaching results of column effluent and the calculated detail of carbon mass balance in tested columns. This information is available free of charge via the Internet. (DOCX 296 kb)

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Han, YS., Tokunaga, T.K., Salve, R. et al. Environmental feasibility of soil amendment with flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) for terrestrial carbon sequestration. Environ Earth Sci 75, 1148 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5966-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5966-x

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