New technology could turn oceans into ‘giant sponge’ for CO2

Equipment on a barge for UCLA's SeaChange climate change carbon removal project at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California on April 12, 2023. - Floating in the port of Los Angeles, a strange-looking barge covered with pipes and tanks contains a concept that scientists hope to make waves: a new way to use the ocean as a vast carbon dioxide sponge to tackle global warming.
Scientists from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have been working for two years on SeaChange -- an ambitious project that could one day boost the amount of CO2, a major greenhouse gas, that can be absorbed by our seas. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) — Products on a barge for UCLA’s SeaChange local weather adjust carbon removal project at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California. (Getty Photographs)

Our planet’s oceans already take up a large amount of carbon dioxide and warmth caused by climate transform, but could a new engineering turn them into a big “sponge” for CO2?

Which is the goal powering SeaChange, a project masterminded by researchers from the College of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

SeaChange pilot crops convert CO2 absorbed by the ocean into minerals, leaving the ocean absolutely free to take in much more.

Researchers imagine that about 1,800 industrial-scale crops would seize about 10 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per yr – almost a 3rd of the 37 billion tonnes released annually.

The project’s purpose is to “to use the ocean as a massive sponge”, says Gaurav Sant, guide researcher and the director of the Institute of Carbon Management (ICM).

Sant claimed: “The oceans are the world’s biggest sink of carbon dioxide emissions.

“This technologies can electrochemically greatly enhance and restore the oceans’ capacity for carbon dioxide removing from the atmosphere at a globally appropriate scale, thereby mitigating ongoing and accelerating weather adjust.”

Equipment including an electrochemical reactor where seawater is split via electrolysis to capture carbon on a barge for UCLA's SeaChange climate change carbon removal project at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California on April 12, 2023. - Floating in the port of Los Angeles, a strange-looking barge covered with pipes and tanks contains a concept that scientists hope to make waves: a new way to use the ocean as a vast carbon dioxide sponge to tackle global warming.
Scientists from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have been working for two years on SeaChange -- an ambitious project that could one day boost the amount of CO2, a major greenhouse gas, that can be absorbed by our seas. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) — An electrochemical reactor where seawater is split through electrolysis to capture carbon on a barge for UCLA’s SeaChange local climate modify carbon removing job. (Getty Visuals)

Two pilot crops will consider-in sea drinking water, which retains much more than 150 times as significantly carbon dioxide as air does, and convert the dissolved CO2 into two minerals – solid limestone and brucite (the mineral type of magnesium hydroxide).

It is a procedure related to how some marine organisms sort seashells.

The outgoing seawater, depleted of CO2, is then able to take up far more of the greenhouse fuel just like a sponge, rinsing and repeating the exact approach.

Read through additional: Melting snow in Himalayas drives growth of environmentally friendly sea slime visible from area

It also yields hydrogen fuel as a co-solution, which can be made use of as a clean up fuel.

UCLA professor Dante Simonetti, also ICM’s affiliate director for technologies translation, explained: “These projects will determine protocols and tactics for measurement, verification and optimum task siting.

“They will also support us acquire operational ideal methods to be certain scalable, cost-efficient and durable carbon dioxide removing.

“The effective procedure of these crops will lead to the immediate adoption of this technological innovation at a lot greater scales.”

Tags: CO2, giant, oceans, sponge, technology, Turn