How to Pull Carbon Dioxide Out of Seawater

Since the industrial age began, the concentration of CO2 has been increasing continuously in the Earth's atmosphere year-by-year.

As a result, researchers have started investing in how to extract CO2 from the air. According to most experts, extracting carbon dioxide is essential if we want to get rid of halting climate change, global warming, extreme heat events, and stronger storms. Alongside this, removing greenhouse gases is also essential from the atmosphere. People extract approx 37 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

But how to pull carbon dioxide out of seawater?

According to a UCLA research team, there is a process through which removing most carbon dioxide is possible from the atmosphere each year. With the help of this technology, carbon dioxide will be extracted from seawater directly rather than capturing atmosphere CO2, but why? The reason is that each unit volume of seawater holds about 150 times more CO2 than air. A team of researchers at MIT started their research on the ocean, which absorbs about 30-40% of the atmospheric gas created by human activity.

The MIT team published a report in the journal Energy and Environmental Science. According to the report, they have found a unique process through which it is now possible to extract CO2 from ocean water. Moreover, it is possible to fit the system into offshore drilling platforms or fish farms.

Net Negative Potential:

Water splitting is the current process that people use to extract carbon dioxide from ocean water. In this process, a voltage is applied via the process across a series of stacked bipolar membranes. When the procedure will be performed, it will convert bicarbonates into molecules of CO2 to break down the water. After that, these are extracted via a vacuum. You should know that to perform the procedure, expensive materials & chemicals are required. The MIT team could make a membrane-free process that can use reactive electrodes instead of costly bipolar membranes in a cyclic process.

How does the method work?

The water is acidified in the unique process, due to which the conversation of dissolved bicarbonates starts. After that, CO2 molecules are created with the help of reactive electrodes.

Then, a vacuum is used for the extraction of the molecules. It is because water is pumped to some cells with the voltage reverse. You can find the water converted into an alkaline state to release it safely into the ocean.

The acidification of oceans is reversed in the process. It was caused due to the CO2 buildup. In this case, it needs to be mentioned that for the bleaching of coral reefs, acidic oceans are responsible. It can even threaten marine species like shellfish. This process can help to alleviate the CO2 impact which is caused by human activities by rolling out the system at scale. As soon as carbon dioxide is extracted, it is required to dispose of or store the greenhouse gas without releasing it into the atmosphere.

In addition, as we know that the concentration level of carbon dioxide is more than 100% in oceans, and it is greater than that of the air, the technology can offer more effective results than current air-capture methods. Because the gas extraction is needed with the capture step that is completed as the ocean can absorb CO2 directly.

If it comes to talking about achieving any climate goal and avoiding the effects of the climate crisis, CO2 or Carbon dioxide is a big challenge. The team at MIT keeps this in mind and anticipates that they will prepare the system for trial within the next two years. Thus, it can aid the climate crisis issues.

When the direct air-capture systems are used, it is required to capture the gas first and concentrate on it before recovering it. As there is no capture step required, it indicates that volumes of material are much smaller, resulting in making the entire method easier and decreasing the footprint needed.

Conclusion:

The research process is still going on to get an alternative to the present step. Vacuum is used for the removal of the separated carbon dioxide from the water. It is essential to identify operating strategies so that the precipitation of minerals can be prevented. It is capable of fouling the electrodes in the alkalinization cell. As a result, the problem can decrease the entire efficiency of all approaches. According to Hatton, although significant progress is made on the problems, we should not report on them so early. Varanasi says that CO2 is human life's defining issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q What is the best way to remove CO2 from water?

If it comes to talking about an economical process of removing free carbon dioxide in water, it is called "Decarbonation" & "Degasification." It can remove this harmful gas to 99% or more than that.

Q. What process removes carbon dioxide from the ocean responses?

With the help of the ocean "solubility pump," it is possible to remove atmospheric CO2. The reason is that air can mix with as well as dissolve into the upper ocean.

Q. What eats CO2 in the ocean?

According to scientists, diatoms, a particular type of microscopic plant absorbs 10-20 billion tonnes of CO2 yearly. These plants float on the surface of the ocean. This absorbed amount equals the carbon captured by all rainforests worldwide.