Engineers have built a floating laboratory on a 100-foot barge at the Port of Los Angeles to test the idea of removing carbon dioxide from saltwater and reintroducing it to the ocean to reduce global warming.
The ocean, which is sometimes referred to as the planet’s lungs, has already made a significant contribution to preserving the environment by absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide emissions since the Industrial Revolution and 90% of the surplus heat they generate.
Global warming solution on Year 2025
Through a procedure, seawater that is flowing through tanks on the barge receives an electrical charge.
The greenhouse gas is then trapped in a solid mineral made of calcium carbonate, the same material that makes up seashells, as a result of a sequence of chemical events that follow.
The seawater is then reintroduced to the ocean, where it can absorb more carbon dioxide. On the ocean floor, calcium carbonate settles.
The concept is currently being expanded, with a new demonstration location opening this month in Singapore.
The design of larger test facilities will be aided by the information gathered there and at the Port of Los Angeles.
By 2025, those facilities should be operational and capable of removing thousands of tons of CO2 annually.
The UCLA team calculated that it would take at least 1,800 industrial-scale plants to absorb 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, but even fewer could still make a dent.
Scientists warn that reducing emissions alone will not be sufficient to keep the increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and prevent catastrophic impacts on ecosystems.
They are thus looking into a variety of options.
The method’s ability to create hydrogen is one feature that sets it apart. Additionally, it does not call for burying the dissolved carbon.
About 220 metric tons of water must pass through the system in order to remove one metric ton of carbon dioxide.
Sant’s unreviewed project article was examined by Andres Clarens, an engineering professor at the University of Virginia who studies carbon dioxide removal.
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Attempts to Limitating the Climate Change
Although the production of hydrogen is a benefit, he expressed concern that the process would need a lot of energy to be effective.
For every ton of carbon dioxide eliminated, the system uses around two-megawatt hours of electricity, but the co-product hydrogen generates one-megawatt hour of energy.
According to Sant, hydrogen may be marketed to be utilized as a green fuel by businesses or used to help power the systems.
To make sure that attempts to limit climate change are genuinely beneficial and do not worsen the state of the world in the process, scientists advise carefully weighing the risks associated with each of these actions.
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