Background :
As companies work to meet their net-zero goals, the need for additional carbon offsets is presented. Ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) capture is a general technique used to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels by using the ocean to absorb it. In order for this to occur, the ocean’s acidity must be mitigated through a process called electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement. This describes the use of electrochemistry to generate alkalinity for addition to the ocean, thereby decreasing its pH and enabling the safe absorption of CO2 as bicarbonate. These electrochemical systems often take in electricity and brine streams as inputs and output the constituent acid and base of the incoming salt (e.g., NaCl in seawater is converted to HCl acid and NaOH base). One way to do this is with bipolar membrane electrodialysis, an electrochemical process that uses ion-selective membranes between two end electrodes to generate HCl and NaOH from incoming NaCl‑containing brine. If HCl is kept on land and the NaOH and seawater are returned to the ocean, the ocean's alkalinity increases, thereby promoting the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere. A problem is that the incoming brine streams often contain unwanted divalent cations such as calcium or magnesium. They are typically removed via water softening pretreatment to avoid scaling of solid calcium and magnesium precipitate on the membranes, which leads to higher energy consumption and shorter membrane lifetime. However, this pretreatment is expensive.
Technology Overview :
Researchers at Stony Brook University (SBU) propose a technology that enables electrochemical enhancement of ocean alkalinity without pretreatment of incoming seawater. This system produces “negative emission” carbon offsets of very high quality at a substantially reduced cost by avoiding pretreatment.
Advantages :
Applications :
Intellectual Property Summary : 11998875
Licensing Status : Available
Licensing Potential : Development partner - Commercial partner - Licensing
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