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Research interests
My research focuses on understanding and harnessing mineral–water interactions to address major environmental challenges, particularly climate change mitigation, carbon dioxide removal, contaminated land remediation and ecosystem restoration. Working at the interface of environmental geochemistry, mineralogy and sustainability, I investigate how natural and engineered mineral processes can contribute to the development of innovative, science-based environmental solutions.
A central theme of my research is mineral-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR), with particular emphasis on chemical and microbially induced mineral carbonation, ocean alkalinity enhancement and enhanced rock weathering. My work explores the formation, stability and reactivity of carbonate minerals, investigating how these processes can be optimised to capture and store atmospheric CO₂ in stable mineral phases. By combining experimental geochemistry, mineralogical characterisation and geochemical modelling, I aim to improve our understanding of the mechanisms controlling carbon sequestration and assess their potential for sustainable, large-scale applications.
Another important aspect of my research concerns the environmental behaviour of minerals in natural and anthropogenic environments. Building on my doctoral work on alkaline industrial waste systems, I investigate how mineral transformations influence contaminant mobility, geochemical stability and the long-term environmental behaviour of carbonates. This includes research on metastable carbonate phases, particularly ikaite, and their potential applications in carbon dioxide removal and environmental remediation.
More recently, my research at the University of Glasgow, within the GALLANT programme, has focused on integrating carbon sequestration with contaminated land remediation. Through the project Simultaneous Carbon Sequestration and Pollution Remediation, I investigated the potential of chemical and microbially induced mineral carbonation to immobilise contaminants in degraded urban soils while promoting durable CO₂ storage. Combining laboratory experimentation, mineralogical and microstructural analysis, and pilot-scale field investigations, this work explored opportunities to restore soil functionality, reduce environmental risks and improve the climate mitigation potential of urban environments.
In my current role as Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Sustainability at Bournemouth University, alongside my affiliation as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Glasgow, I am continuing to develop interdisciplinary research connecting environmental geochemistry, climate mitigation and ecosystem resilience. I am particularly interested in translating fundamental geochemical knowledge into practical environmental applications, evaluating the performance and sustainability of mineral-based technologies under real-world conditions, and fostering collaboration across academia and industry.
My long-term research ambition is to contribute to the development of scalable, environmentally responsible approaches to carbon dioxide removal and ecosystem restoration, where natural geochemical processes can support climate resilience, improve environmental quality and help transform degraded environments into functional ecosystems and durable carbon sinks.
Projects
Contributing to the GALLANT programme (https://www.gla.ac.uk/gallant) and working on the project “Simultaneous carbon sequestration and pollution remediation”, developing chemical and microbially induced carbonation strategies to sequester CO₂ while immobilising contaminants in degraded urban soils. Responsibilities include experimental design and implementation (including pilot-scale field trials), geochemical and mineralogical characterisation, data analysis, publication development, and contribution to research proposals and collaborative partnerships focused on climate mitigation and ecological restoration.
Novel method of ocean alkalinity enhancement, particularly through the creation of hydrated carbonates such as amorphous calcium carbonate & ikaite. The focus of the work is on material characterisation, geochemical kinetics and stability in air & seawater of these minerals.This technology uses high pressure CO2 (~15 bar) in an aqueous reactor to dissolve crushed limestone within minutes. The calcium rich water is passed to a low-pressure reactor (~0.1 bar) that evolves and recycles gaseous CO2 and forces the precipitation of hydrated carbonates over 30 – 80 minutes at temperatures <15°C. Experimental results suggest complete dissolution of hydrated carbonates can increase seawater alkalinity and thus potentially ameliorate the effects of ocean acidification. This technology could be scaled up to have a meaningful impact on climate change, and the costs could be comparable to other CO2 removal approaches. That is possible within the next 15 years, particularly as the raw materials are abundant.
Evaluating how carbonates from anthropogenic alkaline sites in UK are bio-influenced and how trace elements are incorporated to the crystals. Studying the fortuitous discovery of shrub morphologies in these carbonates very similar to those of the South-Atlantic Pre-Salt carbonates by petrographic analyses (Optical microscope and SEM) and relating petrographic features to processes in the field and ultimately to environments.
Looking for transient forms of calcium carbonate (amorphous calcium carbonate, vaterite, ikaite and hydrocalcite) by using field-based ATR-FTIR and XRD methods, and especially a recent discovery of ikaite from an alkaline site in UK. This discovery will involve designing an experiment for distribution coefficient of ikaite and ion substitution and finding other alkaline sites in Poland and Canada.
Assessing the alkalinity of spring water by evaluating two methods of titrations (Fixed End Point and Inflection Point methods) in terms of repeatability, accuracy, efficiency and reliability.
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