Luckily, nowadays GIS software can help us to avoid traveling the vast country from north to south. In fact, by adding just a couple of sources and creating some buffers, points and lines, quite powerful results can be deducted. In an earlier blog post we already discussed a bit about the powder of remote sensing and geographic information software. To create the above map, we used QGIS open source software. In case you want to download a high resolution version, click here. In the following we will elaborate a little bit about the analysis we ran.

Basically we wanted to know where in Brazil we can capture carbon by applying rock powder as we speak. Consequently, the currently available and certified rock powders, as indicated by the organic institute of Brazil, have been the most relevant data points for this map. We separated them into four categories based on their CaO and MgO contents. To extract the priority 1 and 2 municipalities, we considered very high (CaO + MgO >17%) and high (10%< CaO + MgO <17%) potential rock powders and created a 50km and 25km buffer respectively (the higher the CO2 sequestration potential the longer transportation routes are viable). The resulting list of municipalities, located within or intersecting with this buffer, is attached at the end of this blog post.

Additional information we included to the map were precipitation isohyets. This is as increasing precipitation positively influences the rate of weathering and probability for long term carbon sequestration. Moreover, existing mines that are potential sources for rock powder are displayed together with rock upwellings that show potentially high CaO and MgO contents, thus helping to understand a future development in this market. We also added a layer representing pasture areas in Brazil, as these areas are known to be especially degraded while constituting interesting places to apply rock powder. To cross check our results we have compared the map with the agro-geological mapping project. Happily, we saw common tendencies in our maps which gave us confidence about the work presented here.

A Weakness of the analysis presented here is tendentially incomplete data. When we compared the locations of basalt mines in São Paulo state to the federal data set, we saw that there are many more mines shown in the local data set, meaning that significantly more sources for rock powder must exist throughout Brazil. Also a representation of the mean annual temperature and soil type would be necessary for a more holistic analysis regarding the topic. However, when adding too many layers to such a macro analysis as presented here, the results tend to be quite messy in terms of visibility. Eventually a more regional and local scale will permit adding more information.

If you want to find out more about the potential of your farm, land or region to capture carbon with rock powder, get in touch!

Annex:

Todays high potential municipalities for enhanced weathering in Brazil