Sustainability problem: 

CO2 released when burning fossil fuels leads to global warming

Solution:

Turn carbon capture into stone and store underground!

• In Iceland, scientists turned carbon into stone by  pumping a power plant’s carbon dioxide into underground basalt and mixed them with water.  The process chemically solidified the carbon dioxide and changed the basalt and CO2 into a chalk like substance.
• The solidifying process takes 2 years, whereas it was originally assumed to take decades.
• The solidification resolves the risk that carbon stored underground as gas or slurry could accidentally be released into the atmosphere.
• Its currently unclear whether the process could work with many types of basalt or saltwater as opposed to freshwater

Stakeholders

• Governments trying to meet CO2 cap commitments
• Power plants trying to limit CO2 due to regulations or cap and trade limits/incentives
• Citizens who benefit from avoiding the impacts of global warming
• Coastal cities/regions and other high risk localities that have to plan and pay for warming mitigation and adaption

First 3 steps for deployment:

1. Additional studies of types of basalt and water required for the reaction (including testing factors that affect the duration of the reaction)
2. Analysis of potential geographic locations and power plants that have the proper basalt formations and could make use of the technology
3. Cost analysis and funding models to determine how much the technology will cost to use and which stakeholders should contribute to the costs

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-turn-carbon-dioxide-emissions-into-stone-video/