New funding for Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement research

Ocean alkalinity enhancement can help the ocean absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but there are questions of efficiency and scale still to explore. Professor John Taylor, Deputy Director of the Centre for Climate Repair, has received new funding to help us better understand the impacts and produce guidelines for the field.

In collaboration with Professor Oscar Branson at the University of Cambridge and Dr. Adam Subhas at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, they will characterise what happens when alkaline material mixes with seawater near the point of addition.

"Under certain conditions, unwanted mineral precipitation can occur, which can reduce the carbon removal benefit," writes Frontier, who have awarded the funding. "The team will build models to predict when and how this precipitation occurs, and validate them using field trial data and targeted lab experiments.

"The team will also develop strategies to avoid rapid changes in seawater chemistry and precipitation formation that may cause unintended environmental impacts. Based on project results, the team will produce guidelines to help OAE practitioners design more accurate and lower-cost carbon removal measurement strategies for the critical mixing zone."

Frontier has awarded $2.1M in grants to the University of St Andrews, the University of Cambridge, [C]Worthy, and Submarine Scientific on behalf of Stripe, Google, and Shopify, with funding support from ClimateWorks Foundation. These projects address key technical hurdles preventing Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) from safely scaling.