Self‐Biased Electro‐Mineralization via Programmable Field Engineering for Energy‐Efficient Ocean Carbon Removal
Gigaton-scale carbon removal demands geologic permanence at low land, water, and energy cost. Ocean pathways are promising, but many electrochemical routes require large pH swings, membranes/sorbents, and suffer from fouling. We report the self-biased electro-mineralization as a practical route to ocean carbon removal. Porous core-shell electrodes program interfacial fields that direct Ca<sup>2+</sup>/CO<sub>3</sub> <sup>2-</sup> transport and trigger in-pore crystallization in simulated seawater, without membrane stacks or large bulk pH swings. Field strength is tunable via core/shell ratio, polymer chemistry, and fixed-charge density, enabling the architecture to deliver long-duration, fouling-resistant operation (>2000 h), ∼25% DIC conversion under flow. A 400 cm<sup>2</sup> cell and a simple 100-liter stirred reactor show that the microscale, uniform field both preserves performance under geometry area scale-up and enables low-overhead capacity expansion. Techno-economic analysis projects an energy consumption of 44 kJ mol<sup>-1</sup> CO<sub>2</sub> and a cost of $139 t<sup>-1</sup> CO<sub>2</sub>. Extending beyond CaCO<sub>3</sub>, we precipitate additional sparingly soluble phases (CaF<sub>2</sub>, BaSO<sub>4</sub>, PbSO<sub>4</sub>) from complex brines, establishing a platform also supporting resource recovery. These results shift ocean mineralization from bulk-solution manipulation to programmable reaction-environment design, advancing a scalable, cost-effective pathway to climate relevant carbon removal.
Authors
- Zishuai Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9268-4889)
- Kui Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3503-1563)
- Pan Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4721-1653)
- Huifang Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2918-1522)
- Shuilong Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3923-5710)
- Meng Lin
- Xin Li
- Yuan Fang
- Yipeng Zheng
Institutions
- Shanxi University (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Soochow University (CN)
- Ministry of Education (RO)
- Ministry of Education (SA)
- Beijing Haidian Hospital (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2026-02-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.1737498
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00