Quantifying soil carbon sequestration with gamma spectroscopy and mass-spectrometry

Lead Research Organisation: University College London
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

The aim of the project is to exploit particle physics detector technologies developed by the UCL HEP group to help addressing one of the key challenges of climate change - CO2 sequestration from the atmosphere.

Soil carbon sequestration has a significant potential to mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions. Enhanced weathering of silicate rocks can increase the efficiency of CO2 sequestration while potentially delivering benefits to agriculture and making it commercially attractive. This however heavily relies on the robust assessment of the sequestered CO2 quantities. Current methods are slow, invasive and labour intensive. The project will explore the feasibility of employing a different approach based on neutron induced gamma-spectroscopy (N-Gamma-Spec) that could allow fast and quantitative carbon monitoring using an in situ scanning of large land areas.
It will also develop further a more established method of monitoring and reporting the CO2 sequestration using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The project will look into increasing the sensitivity and throughput of the sample analysis using ICP-MS at UCL and the Boulby Underground Laboratory.

The project is co-funded by UCL and the UN-DO company (https://un-do.com/) whose main mission is to remove large amount of carbon from the atmosphere to address the global warming emergency. The project will carry out a design study of an N-Gamma-Spec apparatus using extensive simulations and test bench measurements. In the latter stage of the project and subject to capital funding availability prototypes will be constructed. Field experiments will be carried out with N-Gamma-Spec and ICP-MS.

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
ST/Y509826/1 30/09/2023 30/09/2028
2898310 Studentship ST/Y509826/1 30/09/2023 30/03/2027 Joseph Betz