Insight into interactions of olivine-scCO2-water system at 140 °C and 15 MPa during CO2 mineral sequestration

CO2 mineral sequestration (in ultrabasic or basaltic rocks) has been considered as a promising long-term and stable approach to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere and would counteract the effect of global warming. Meanwhile, clays are widely found in ultrabasic reservoirs. In our study, clays were observed in natural olivine samples, which were used for laboratory experiments in a supercritical CO2 system at 140 °C and 15 MPa. Initial olivine samples were crushed into two sizes which were large grains of ∼850–1000 μm and powder particles of ∼75–150 μm, with the durations of 400 and 1000 h for the powder and grains, respectively. The results showed amorphous silica was newly formed and this passivating layer could mitigate the water-rock interaction to some extent, but it would not play a long-term prohibited effect on secondary mineral carbonate formation as it is a Fe(III) free silica coating. More interestingly, the secondary carbonates were observed to form near the surface sites where locates more clays. Our findings provide insights into the reaction mechanisms of olivine-scCO2-water interaction process in natural ultrabasic rocks.