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Writer's pictureShabrina Yasmin

Carbon Capture Technology in the Oceans


The large scale of Captura Facility (Source: Captura Corp)


According to the SciTechDaily, the newest research came up with the fact that CO2 absorption is improved by the ocean surface layer's lower temperature, with the Atlantic absorbing 7% more CO2 each year than previously thought. 


How does the ocean soak up Carbon Dioxide?

Everytime the air meets the water, the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide that exists in the atmosphere. It easily absorbs the Carbon dioxide because of the wind that causes the turbulence and the waves. Not many people realize that too much Carbon Dioxide that the ocean absorbs, could harm the animals in the ocean too. 


Simply, the environment under the ocean similarly works like how the land does. The animals that live under the ocean also breathe Oxygen and give off carbon dioxide and the plants such as corals breathe carbon dioxide and give off oxygen for them to live. And ofcourse, if the sea catches more carbon dioxide due to global warming, it may harm the species as well. 


Nowadays, the newest system has been developed that begins to remove the acid from sea water. This phenomenon took place in Sequim, Washington D.C. The U.S Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has the facilities to take up and store the carbon dioxide (Co2) from the atmosphere that existed. This new idea could bring a significant effect towards global climate issues that have been going on. 


Capturing the Carbon using the Oceans

The given picture above is a dock of the Capture Facility located in the Port of Los Angeles, It belongs to the AltaSea. One of the large scale carbon capture facilities is able to capture massive amounts of carbon dioxide in ocean water. The systems actually can capture a ton of carbon dioxide emissions using the large scale of Captura Facilities which contain the large metal cages, numerous electronic equipment, tanks, wires and pipes. 


How does it work? 

How captura facilities works (Source: Captura Corporation)


The Captura’s Exclusive electrodialysis technique is used to process the salt water, then it separates the salt and water into an acid and alkali based using renewable electricity.  The alkaline bases are used to neutralize the flow of ocean water. This aids in the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Captura claims that this water can later react with the atmosphere to extract a comparable amount of Carbon dioxide. And because of that the seawater has the ability to reabsorb the same amount of carbon dioxide that was extracted after filtering. It successfully reduces the effects of climate change due to the special feature. 


Sources: 

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