Extracting carbon dioxide from the oceans would help decrease acidification, allowing coral reefs to thrive. (Image Credit: Hiroko Yoshi)
Carbon capture technology has become a controversial topic over the past little while. The U.S. Department of Energy invested $131 million toward carbon capture innovations, and those in opposition say it’s used as a distraction to form other climate-fighting strategies. MIT engineers say they recently discovered a way to extract carbon dioxide from worldwide oceans.
Their method involves using dual asymmetrical electrochemical cells with silver and bismuth electrodes. The first cell drops protons in the water containing CO2, which gets sucked in by a vacuum. Then, the second cell cleanses the seawater so that it contains no carbon dioxide before putting it back into the ocean.
Schematic of the system. (Image Credit: MIT)
According to the team, this process consumes very low energy and has “high electron efficiency.” In addition, the system won’t be as costly as other air-based carbon capture technologies. Once captured, the CO2 could go underneath the seafloor for storage or be used for product, chemical, and fuel production.
Overall, the ocean takes in 50 times more carbon compared to the Earth’s atmosphere and 20 times more than all plants and soil, so extracting it from that area is essential. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that the ocean absorbs 26% of human-produced CO2, while high carbon dioxide concentration has led to ocean acidification. An increase in ocean acidity makes it more difficult for coral reefs and other species to form exoskeletons and shells, further interrupting ecosystems and decreasing marine life.
The team also says CO2 found in ocean water is over 100 times more concentrated than in the atmosphere. And technologies designed to remove carbon dioxide from the oceans haven’t made much progress. “The total amount of CO2 emissions partitioning into the oceans rivals that retained by the atmosphere,” they say, “and thus effective means for its removal could augment the other negative emissions technologies to reduce the environmental burden imposed by this greenhouse gas.”
This new technology, expected to be demonstrated in two years, could set a new standard for carbon capture initiatives. According to the Food & Water Watch, carbon capture comes to “pie-in-the-sky greenwashing technologies” that could “only prolong the fossil fuel industry.”
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