Carbon dioxide gets stoned

Iceland is widely touted as a leader in green energy, generating 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. It might come as a surprise, then, to hear that this sparsely populated country has a huge carbon dioxide emissions problem. This is because although Iceland’s two electricity sources – hydropower and geothermal – are promoted as being clean, they do still cause the emission of significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases.

A secondary issue is that Iceland produces a lot of electricity for industrial purposes, explains Eric Oelkers, professor of geochemistry at University College London. The availability of copious amounts of electricity at consistently low prices has attracted the global aluminium production industry to the country. The extraction of aluminium from aluminium ore is a very energy-hungry process. ‘Iceland imports aluminium ore, smelts it and then exports the aluminium again,’ Eric says.

This article presents some familiar chemistry in the context of the development of new carbon capture technologies. Pupils will regularly encounter the global problem of carbon dioxide emissions and climate change through news and popular media. You can use this article to enhance your teaching of combustion of alkanes, greenhouse gases, conservation of mass, and the rock, carbon and limestone cycles.