The Industrial Revolution left a deep mark on our world. Its dawning saw the start of the widespread burning of coal for factories and steam engines and, as a result, the beginning of significant outputs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Our climate is now warming noticeably as these emissions have accumulated across the planet. The British landscape has also been changed dramatically. In particular, the countryside is now peppered with piles of slag left over from old steel mills. Landscaping these piles of industrial waste has required major efforts by local authorities in recent decades. But now a British scientist is planning to use slag heaps to deal with the climate change. Based at Cardiff University’s school of earth and ocean sciences, Phil Renforth is preparing to test the feasibility of using iron and steel slag deposits to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. His three-year project, which has just been awarded a £300,000 grant by the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc), is set to begin in Consett, County Durham, and Port Talbot, south Wales.
Observer 23rd April 2017 read more »