A Nova Scotia startup is testing a method to capture and store more carbon in the ocean, using a new pilot facility to prove the concept. The ocean is already a major storehouse for excess carbon dioxide.
(CBC)Other companies in Nova Scotia are testing different versions of this approach to carbon removal, a field known as alkalinity enhancement. This includes Planetary — which is running a project at Tufts Cove in Halifax to add alkaline rock to seawater to increase its pH and allow it to absorb more carbon dioxide.
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Another company, CarbonRun, is deploying a similar approach on rivers in Nova Scotia.
Gilbert said the benefit of pHathom’s method is that it uses highly concentrated carbon dioxide, making the process more efficient.
If successful, pHathom plans to scale up with a second test site in Nova Scotia next year, integrating their reactor into an institutional building that is transitioning from a fossil-fuel boiler to a biomass system. For any carbon removal technology, the ultimate hurdle is scale.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) modeling indicates that to limit global warming to 1.5 C, global carbon dioxide removal must scale to between 10 and 20 gigatonnes per year (one gigatonne equals one billion tonnes).
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A Nova Scotia-based company is exploring an innovative way to help address climate change by harnessing the natural power of the ocean.
The project represents an important early step in determining whether the technology can eventually be scaled up to help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide on a much larger scale.
Atlantic Canadian Innovation pHathom is one of several Atlantic Canadian companies investigating ways to use the ocean to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
While experts stress that reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains the most important tool in combating climate change, carbon-removal technologies could become an additional piece of the solution.