[C]Worthy

Friday May 10th at 12:30, David Ho and Matthew Long from [C]Worthy and Nina Bednarsek from Oregon State University will present:

Ocean alkalinity enhancement research for marine carbon dioxide removal

There is scientific consensus that industrial-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere will be necessary to meet the Paris Agreement's goal of keeping the rise in global temperature to within 1.5 or 2°C. By enhancing the ocean’s natural capacity for carbon uptake and long-term storage, marine CDR (mCDR) may have the potential to remove carbon at the necessary scales. While investments are pouring into the design and early-stage deployment of mCDR technologies, the ocean is a complex ecosystem and a constantly moving fluid, posing challenges to quantifying the efficiency and environmental safety of mCDR projects. Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is a potentially promising mCDR approach, but research is necessary to determine its efficacy, efficiency, and safety. In this talk, we will describe planned field trials that examine air-sea gas exchange, ocean mixing, alkalinity addition, carbonate chemistry, and the basis behind the monitoring related to examining potential ecological effects. This work will be coupled with numerical simulations to help develop techniques to evaluate net carbon removal achieved by mCDR and evaluate techniques to help avoid adverse ecological impacts.

Join the seminar in N-131 on May 10th at 12:30 to 13:30 or on Zoom: