How can water help clean the atmosphere? - Scientists study the extraction of carbon dioxide from the sea
English scientists are testing a method to extract carbon dioxide from seawater, which takes this substance from the atmosphere.
About 25 percent of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by human activity, is absorbed by the oceans, and releasing it allows seawater to absorb more, helping to combat climate change.
"There's basically a lot of carbon dioxide in seawater, more than there is in the air," said University of Exeter Professor Paul Halloran.
"Seawater contains about 150 times more CO2 than air, making it a more efficient means of capturing carbon. So extracting it from seawater, rather than air, is a reasonable starting point," Halloran said.
The project, called SeaCURE, involves acidifying seawater, which converts dissolved carbon back into a gas, which is then captured and stored. The treated water is then rebalanced using alkaline substances before being returned to the marine environment.
Currently, the scale of application is limited, as the project removes only 100 tons of CO2 per year, a figure equivalent to the emissions of a one-way transatlantic flight. But the aim is to assess the feasibility of expanding this method as part of carbon dioxide removal strategies.
Since marine organisms such as phytoplankton and mollusks depend on dissolved carbon for processes such as photosynthesis and shell formation, mitigating any negative effects is essential.
"We are still gathering the scientific data to make well-informed decisions about this. And one of the things we are doing is environmental impact experiments," said a PhD student at the University of Exeter.
The team added that scaling up the process faces challenges, including high energy requirements and costs.
The SeaCURE pilot project, built at the Weymouth SEA LIFE Centre with UK government funding, is led by the University of Exeter's Global Systems Institute.
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