Why it matters. Cheap, scalable carbon storage paired with clean hydrogen production would address two of the biggest obstacles to decarbonizing global energy, and basalt's worldwide abundance means the approach is not tied to any single country.
Background. South Korea has notable basalt regions of its own — Jeju Island, the Hantan and Imjin river valleys near the inter-Korean border, and the Ulleung-Dokdo islands — giving the country potential domestic sites for such technology. The reporting outlet, Hankyoreh, is a major South Korean daily known for science and environmental coverage; Carbfix is an Icelandic spin-off that has pioneered mineral-based carbon storage.
What to watch next. The University of Texas team plans industry-partnered field trials, the key test of whether lab results can scale toward the efficiency needed for commercial use.
Scientists in China, the United States and Iceland are racing to perfect a technology that does two of climate science’s hardest jobs at once: permanently locking away carbon dioxide underground while pulling clean hydrogen out of the same rock. The shared ingredient is basalt, a common volcanic stone that covers roughly half the Earth’s crust.
Recent results presented in late 2025 and at a major European geoscience conference in May 2026 suggest the approach is moving from theory toward field trials, though efficiency remains far too low for commercial use.
How the Rock Does Double Duty
The chemistry relies on natural oxidation and reduction reactions. When water saturated with CO2 — essentially carbonated water — is injected into basalt, the mild acidity dissolves iron and other metals from the rock. As the iron oxidizes, hydrogen ions in the water are converted into hydrogen gas that rises to the surface.
Meanwhile, calcium and magnesium leached from the basalt bind with the dissolved CO2 and harden into solid carbonate minerals, sealing the carbon underground permanently. In short, carbon goes down as the hydrogen comes up. The reactions work best under high heat, which dissolves the rock, and high pressure, which keeps the CO2 dissolved in the water.
Why Hydrogen, and Why This Matters
Hydrogen burns to produce water rather than carbon, making it an attractive clean fuel alongside solar and wind. The catch is that most hydrogen used today is made from fossil fuels, releasing carbon in the process. Renewable-powered production solves that but is expensive, which is why interest has grown in extracting or generating hydrogen directly from the ground.
The Latest Findings
A team at Wuhan University in China found that simply raising the reaction temperature from room temperature to 60°C boosted hydrogen output more than 51-fold. Over a three-month experiment, one ton of basalt permanently stored 41.7 kg of CO2 as mineral.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin went further, adding a small amount of nickel chloride as a catalyst. Over 133 days at 90°C and pressures 12 to 17 times atmospheric, they extracted hydrogen and sequestered carbon even from basalt long thought unsuitable. Their yield reached just 0.5% of the theoretical maximum; the team believes 1% would make the process practical.
A study from the University of Iceland and climate firm Carbfix — which already runs the world’s first basalt-based carbon capture and storage plant — showed the reaction works using seawater instead of freshwater, generating hydrogen at just 50°C. That overcomes a major weakness of earlier methods, which consumed 25 to 27 tons of freshwater to dissolve a single ton of CO2.
The Hurdles Ahead
Natural hydrogen trapped deep in the crust forms over tens of thousands of years and is hard to reach; only one village, Bourakébougou in Mali, currently taps it as an energy source. Engineered basalt reactions could sidestep those limits, since basalt is abundant worldwide. But efficiency must rise sharply to be economic, and researchers must address risks including injection-induced micro-earthquakes, groundwater contamination, and underground microbes that consume the hydrogen.
The US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E is funding such work with $20 million, and the Texas team plans field tests with industry partners.
