Oceans help cool down the world. Startups are betting they can tweak the chemistry of seas to make them do even more.
It is a radical idea that has yet to be proven on a commercial scale and causes some to worry about potential risks. But at least a dozen young companies are embarking on the world’s first major projects to get oceans to soak up more carbon dioxide, encouraged by billions of dollars in federal and corporate funding for efforts that remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
A startup that uses an electrochemical method to remove carbon from seawater is building its first commercial-scale plants in Singapore and Quebec. Removing the carbon boosts the ocean’s ability to soak up more from the atmosphere. The U.S. government recently awarded it and a competitor with a similar approach some of the first federal funding for carbon removal.
Another startup is set to pour about 9,000 tons of sand mixed with a yellow-green mineral called olivine near the waters off North Carolina’s Outer Banks. When the sand dissolves in water, it triggers a series of chemical reactions that drive carbon removal.
Oceans absorb about 30% of the carbon from the atmosphere. Startups are developing technologies to rev up that power. https://t.co/oM5JP6VR7H via @WSJ
— WSJ Science (@WSJscience) June 25, 2024