A Novel Soil Porewater Extraction Technique for Enhanced Weathering Products: Saturation-Centrifugation

In partnership with a leading team of researchers, we are proud to share a new peer-reviewed paper on SAT-C (SATuration-Centrifugation), UNDO’s proprietary soil porewater extraction technique for enhanced rock weathering. Developed to address a major challenge in ERW measurement, SAT-C is designed to recover porewater from a defined soil volume independently of in-situ moisture conditions, helping improve sampling reliability under variable field conditions.

The study evaluates SAT-C against traditional porewater extraction methods across two Scottish enhanced rock weathering field trials, Dumyat and Glensaugh, and provides strong evidence that the patent-pending method can generate robust, reproducible porewater chemistry data in real-world conditions.

The findings are important because porewater chemistry is a key part of enhanced rock weathering measurement. It helps researchers track cation fluxes, identify the strong acid weathering fraction, and support more reliable carbon accounting and verification.

Key results from the research include:

– SAT-C porewater chemistry showed strong agreement with rhizon samples for major ions across both field sites.

– All SAT-C cores yielded sufficient porewater at both sites, including where some rhizons and lysimeters did not.

– The 24-hour SAT-C protocol appeared more reproducible than the 72-hour protocol under the conditions studied.

– Because SAT-C recovers intact soil cores, the same samples can also support linked aqueous and solid-phase characterisation, alongside bulk density measurements.

This paper is an essential resource for anyone interested in the science of enhanced rock weathering measurement, from geochemists and carbon removal researchers to registries, buyers, and organisations following the development of robust ERW monitoring approaches.

It highlights how improved porewater extraction can strengthen the scientific foundations of enhanced rock weathering by enhancing data continuity, internal consistency, and measurement reliability under field conditions.

Download A Novel Soil Porewater Extraction Technique for Enhanced Weathering Products: Saturation-Centrifugation below to explore how UNDO is progressing the science of ERW measurement.