Prof Phil Renforth

Chair in Earth Sciences

Researcher profile

Email
pr218@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Research areas

I research how to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by reacting it with rocks, minerals and industrial wastes. I'm trained as both a civil and environmental engineer and a geochemist, and work where Earth science meets engineering. My research covers ocean alkalinity enhancement, enhanced rock weathering, mineral carbonation, carbon removal verification, and the techno-economic assessment of emerging climate technologies.

I joined St Andrews in 2026 from Heriot-Watt University, where I was Professor of Carbon Dioxide Removal and Associate Director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions. Before that, I was a Lecturer in Engineering Geology at Cardiff University and a James Martin Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. I hold an MEng and a PhD from Newcastle University.

I have authored more than 130 publications and was a contributing author to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. I have served on US National Academies committees on ocean carbon dioxide removal and was a judge for the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal. I also coordinated the science of the UK's first Greenhouse Gas Removal research programme. I advise governments, philanthropists and investors on carbon removal, and hold several patents in the field.

Selected publications

 

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