Bacteria could help turn CO2 to rock under extreme conditions

Bacteria may be able to accelerate the mineralisation of carbon dioxide under extreme conditions. Injecting such microbes underground along with captured CO2 could enable more durable storage of the greenhouse gas.

Gokce Ustunisik at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and her colleagues isolated Geobacillus bacteria species from a compost pile in Washington state that were known to tolerate high temperatures and pressures.

In laboratory tests, the researchers compared the rate at which CO2 mineralised when dissolved in…