UK researchers show crushed rock can remove atmospheric CO2 while improving crop yields

In the UK, crushed rock can remove about 3-4 metric tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) per hectare per year and improve crop yields, results of a pioneering study have shown. The four-year field trial in the U.S. Corn Belt, led by researchers at the University of Sheffield’s Leverhulme Center for Climate Change Mitigation, shows adding crushed basalt to farmland in a process known as Enhanced Weathering, can also increase maize and soybean yields by 12%–16%.

Carbon removal strategies, like Enhanced Weathering (EW), alongside reducing emissions, have repeatedly been identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as necessary tools to minimize the worst impacts of climate change. Increasing crop yields are important for food security against continued global population growth and climate challenges.

The carbon removal approaches studied have the potential to not only remove significant quantities of carbon from the atmosphere and store it permanently, but to increase crop yields.

The study points to the substantial untapped potential for utilizing millions of hectares of U.S. farmland to scale Enhanced Weathering and deliver carbon dioxide removal with sustainable food and biofuel production. More than 39 million hectares of land in the U.S. alone are reserved for maize production, and more than 35 million hectares of soybeans were planted in the U.S. in 2021.