Calcium sulfate precipitation pathways in natural and engineered environments

Abstract

The solution-mediated formation of calcium sulfate minerals, i.e. gypsum, anhydrite and bassanite, is a common process in both natural and engineered settings. It plays a key role in the global sulfur cycle and serves as an indicator of past environmental conditions on Earth and Mars. Products relying on the crystallization of these minerals have been employed since antiquity, and today they are an essential part of a wide array of industrial applications. Accordingly, the fundamental aspects of calcium sulfate mineralization have been the focus of intensive research during the past century. However, a recent flurry of studies addressing alternative, i.e. non-classical, nucleation and growth mechanisms has spurred a revisit of the precipitation pathway of the most common phase, gypsum. The newly obtained data sketch a far more complex picture of the mineralization process than previously assumed. This has important consequences for the interpretation of calcium sulfate deposits, both from a geochemical and industrial point of view. In order to shed light on this issue, we discuss in this review both recent and long-standing observations of abiotic formation routes of calcium sulfate minerals as a function of the physicochemical solution properties. By integrating both the classical and non-classical perspectives on crystallization we put forward a unified model for calcium sulfate crystallization. Using this model, we (re)-evaluate the phase stability and transformations taking place in the CaSO4-H2O system. Next, we look into the formation of calcium sulfate minerals occurring in close association with the biosphere. Employing the abiotic case scenario as a benchmarking tool, the possible influence and/or control exerted by biological activity (and its byproducts) on the precipitation pathway is critically reviewed. Finally, we point out the central issues that need to be resolved if we wish to fully understand, and control, the formation of calcium sulfate solids in natural and engineered environments.