Geochemical Controls on Basalt Dissolution and Carbonate Precipitation during CO ₂ Sequestration: A Review of Experimental Results and Scaling Challenges

Basalt mineralization is recognized as a potential, permanent avenue for geological CO 2 sequestration, but major ambiguities remain in translating laboratory-scale results to field-scale applications. This review provides a critical and mechanistic synthesis of basalt-CO 2 -water interactions by integrating results from laboratory, reactor-based, and field studies. The investigation focuses on the mineral-specific reactivity of plagioclase, pyroxene, and olivine. It evaluates the kinetics of Ca 2+, Mg 2+, and Fe 2+ release across a wide range of temperatures (5–350 °C), pressures (1–500 bar), pH (2–12), and fluid compositions. The accumulated experimental evidence shows that dissolution is generally enhanced under acidic conditions, whereas carbonate precipitation is favored under neutral to alkaline conditions; however, this transition is governed by evolving saturation states, buffering capacity, and fluid-rock interactions rather than pH. A comparison of mixed-flow, batch, column, autoclave, and core-flooding systems reveals the importance of mass transfer, reactive surface area, and transport regimes in determining reaction rates and mineralization efficiency. The review identifies rate-limiting processes, such as surface passivation, secondary silicate production, and pore plugging, and explores their impact on permeability evolution and CO 2 injectivity. A structured synthesis of experimental data demonstrates that mineralization efficiency is heavily influenced by the combined impacts of basalt composition, fluid chemistry, and hydrodynamic circumstances, rather than by single characteristics. Although basalt formations have a huge theoretical storage capacity, their practical performance is limited by reservoir heterogeneity, injectivity constraints, and reactive transport mechanisms. This review underlines the need for integrated experimental-modeling approaches to bridge the gap between laboratory observations and field-scale implementation, providing a more realistic framework for evaluating long-term storage performance and stability.