Mineral Carbonation in Select Samples of the Deccan Volcanic Province

Keeping into consideration the areal and voluminal extent of the Deccan basalt and its reactivity, it has a high potential to store CO2 in the form of stable carbonate minerals. In our work, we have reacted CO2 dissolved in water with basalt containing olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase under different temperature conditions at 50 bar pressure to study the effect of temperature on mineral carbonation. We have also studied the effect of surface area of rock on mineral carbonation. For this, we have done a field study, petrography, XRF analysis, EPMA analysis, SEM analysis, and TGA analysis of the sample. In our study, we have found the formation of magnesite in powdered samples in a shorter duration (2 weeks) than stub samples (2 months) having 1 cm3 volume. This study also reveals more tendency to form carbonate minerals at higher temperatures compared to lower temperature.