An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN.
On a section of Singapore's western coast, a startup is building a plant that will turn carbon dioxide from air and seawater into a material similar to seashells. The process also produces “green” hydrogen, a much-touted clean fuel. .
A cluster of low-rise buildings starting to take shape in Tuas will become the “world's largest” ocean-based carbon removal plant when completed later this year, according to Equatic, a startup spun out from the University of California. In Los Angeles. The idea is that the plant would draw water from the ocean, run an electric current through it and set off a series of chemical reactions that would capture and store carbon dioxide as a mineral that could be returned to the ocean or used. On land…The $20 million facility will be fully operational by the end of the year and will be able to remove 3,650 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, said Edward Saunders, chief operating officer of Equatic, which has partnered with Singapore's National Water Board. said. Build a plant. This amount is equivalent to removing approximately 870 average passenger cars from the road. Sanders told CNN that the goal is to scale up to 100,000 tons of CO2 removal per year by the end of 2026, and from there to millions of tons over the next few decades. He said the plant could be replicated anywhere by stacking modules “like Lego blocks”.
Although the initial costs are high, the company plans to sell carbon credits to polluters to offset their pollution and make money by selling the hydrogen produced in the process. Equatic has already signed a deal with Boeing to sell 2,100 tons of hydrogen, which will be used to produce green fuels and fund the removal of 62,000 tons of CO2.
CNN points out that there are other projects attempting ocean-based carbon regeneration around the world. “Other projects include spraying iron particles into the ocean to stimulate phytoplankton that absorbs carbon dioxide, sinking seaweed deep to trap carbon, and sinking seaweed to reflect some of the sun’s energy. This includes spraying particles into ocean clouds.”
But carbon removal projects are controversial, criticized for being expensive, unproven at scale, and departing from fossil fuel reduction policies. And the criticism could be even louder when it involves the ocean, a complex ecosystem already under great strain from global warming. Jean-Pierre Gatusso, a marine scientist at France's Sorbonne University, said there was a “huge knowledge gap” when it came to marine geoengineering in general. “I'm very concerned about the fact that the science is lagging behind the industry,” he told CNN.
