California researchers want to use the oceans as a CO2 sponge to fight global warming

As we know, to balance their carbon footprint, companies finance the planting of trees for their ability to absorb CO2 and transform it into oxygen. This requires money and space, so the Californian University of Ucla in Los Angeles is working on another solution: emptying CO2 from the oceans so that they can absorb even more, and thus fight against global warming.

The oceans, this “silent hero”

THE Los Angeles Times even speaks of a “silent hero”. The oceans have absorbed a third of the CO2 produced since the Industrial Revolution, but also 90% of the heat that accompanies it. This giant “sink” can store 150 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere. In other words, humanity would be in a bad position without the Pacific, the Atlantic and all the others. The problem is that all this heat and all this CO2 have an impact on the ecosystem of the seas, whose acidity increases, affecting fish, corals. Algae become toxic. So researchers at Ucla University in Los Angeles think they have found a solution to both protect the oceans while letting them continue to play their role of silent heroes.

How do they plan to get there? To put it simply: by pumping water from the oceans, extracting the CO2 and reinjecting this “clean” water. To extract the carbon dioxide, the system sends an electrical discharge through the water. Electrolysis triggers a series of chemical reactions that store CO2 in mineral form, a powder of calcium carbonate, a component found in chalk and certain shells. This powder settles at the bottom of the oceans. The other existing techniques for “decarbonising” generally consist of storing the gas underground. There, this system called SeaChange is much simpler. The Ucla researchers, who worked on this project for two years, demonstrated a few weeks ago at the Port of Los Angeles, on a barge 30 meters long with on board around thirty small tanks in which the chemical reactions. The operation also generates hydrogen, which could eventually supply the device with energy.

It will take a lot of time and a lot of money

The challenge at this stage is first of all to be able to reproduce the experiment on a large scale, but also to anticipate any side effects for nature. The project attracted enough to receive funding from the Department of Energy and the foundation of Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Chan Zuckerberg. The head of the Ucla team launched a startup called Equatic, precisely to take the project beyond the laboratories. To have an impact, it would be necessary to be able to withdraw from the oceans at least ten billion tons of CO2 per year. And to achieve this result, the Ucla researchers estimate that it would take 1,800 industrial versions of what they have developed. Time and money will therefore be required. Another demonstration is planned soon in Singapore. A full-scale version could be built and operational in 2025.