The World’s Largest Ocean-Based Carbon Capture Plant

UCLA is teaming up with Singapore’s national water agency and other partners to create the biggest ocean-based plant that removes carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air. This plant is special because it can take away 3,650 metric tons of CO₂ each year. That’s a lot, like removing the weight of about 24 blue whales worth of this gas that heats up our planet! Plus, it makes 105 metric tons of hydrogen that doesn’t add any CO₂ back into the air, which is great for our environment.

To give you an idea, in 2020, the World Bank said that each person on Earth, on average, was responsible for about 4.3 metric tons of CO₂ emissions. That’s like if every person filled up more than half of a swimming pool with CO₂ every year. UCLA’s engineers want to catch CO₂ from the ocean to help lower these numbers because the ocean can hold a lot of CO₂.

UCLA and its startup, Equatic, after doing some test projects in Los Angeles and Singapore, are planning a big project called Equatic-1. It’s going to cost $20 million and will show on a big scale how their idea works. They have support from Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB), Singapore’s National Research Foundation, and UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management.

Gaurav Sant, a professor at UCLA, said, “Scaling carbon removal solutions requires technology, bold and committed partners, and a focus on timely and measurable success. We have been very fortunate to create this shared vision with our partners in Singapore to scale Equatic’s solutions to the commercial scale and around the world.”

The way Equatic’s system works is pretty cool. It uses electricity to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen gas. At the same time, it captures CO₂ from the air and turns it into solid materials that can’t release CO₂ back into the atmosphere for a very, very long time (at least 10,000 years!). This helps the ocean suck in more CO₂ from the air.

Soon, a team will start building the biggest plant of its kind in Singapore. It’ll take about 18 months to finish. The first part of the project will start removing CO₂ by the end of next year, and the second part will make the plant even bigger by early 2025. This plant will be able to remove 10 metric tons of CO₂ every day and also produce a clean type of hydrogen gas.

Dante Simonetti, co-founder of Equatic, said, “The pilot system commissioned in 2023 provided critical performance data to substantiate our carbon dioxide-removal efficiencies, hydrogen-production rates, and energy requirements for the process. The findings helped define the pathway for the design and engineering of Equatic-1 based on scaling performance confirmed by the pilot system.”

Singapore’s water agency wants to stop adding CO2 to the air by 2045. They plan to use sunlight for energy, make water treatment use less energy, and capture CO2 from the air. They think working with UCLA and Equatic will help them reach these goals.

PUB’s chief engineering and technology officer, Chee Meng Pang, mentioned, “We are pleased to further our collaboration with UCLA and Equatic to develop a solution that has potential synergies with PUB’s desalination plant. At PUB, we firmly believe that technological advancements, delivered in partnership with academia and the private sector, hold the key to addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change.”

Equatic-1’s modular design – making a system with smaller units that can work on their own – makes it safer to make it bigger or more advanced. It also uses selective anodes, a special part that makes oxygen without making unwanted chlorine, thanks to support from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the US Department of Energy. This could be a big step forward in removing CO2 from the air on a huge scale and making clean hydrogen gas, which can help make cars and factories less polluting.

This article is based on the following article:

https://newatlas.com/energy/equatic-ocean-based-co2-removal-plant-singapore/

Background Information

Understanding these concepts will help the reader grasp the significance of the UCLA and Singapore project to build the world’s largest ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant, and appreciate the complexity and urgency of addressing climate change.

 1. Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and Greenhouse Gases

Carbon dioxide is a gas that’s naturally present in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s released by natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and by human activities like burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) for energy and transportation. CO₂ is one of several greenhouse gases (GHGs) that trap heat in the atmosphere, keeping the Earth warm enough to sustain life. However, human activities have significantly increased the concentrations of these gases, leading to more heat being trapped and causing the Earth’s average temperature to rise, a phenomenon known as global warming.

 2. Climate Change

Global warming is a major driver of climate change, which refers to significant changes in global temperatures and weather patterns over time. While climate change can have natural causes, such as volcanic eruptions or variations in solar radiation, the current changes are largely driven by human activities. This has led to a host of environmental impacts, including more frequent and severe weather events (like hurricanes and droughts), melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and shifts in habitats that affect wildlife and plant species.

 3. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technology aimed at reducing the amount of CO₂ released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuels in power generation and other industries. It involves capturing CO₂ at its emission source, transporting it to a storage location (often deep underground), and isolating it so that it doesn’t enter the atmosphere.

 4. Carbon-Negative Solutions

A carbon-negative solution goes a step further than simply reducing emissions; it actively removes more CO₂ from the atmosphere than it releases. Planting trees is a natural way to achieve this, as plants absorb CO₂ as they grow. Technological solutions are also being developed, such as direct air capture and storage (DACS) and the process mentioned in the article, which involves using the ocean’s natural ability to absorb CO₂.

 5. Renewable Energy and Hydrogen

Renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, don’t produce CO₂ when they generate power, making them key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen, particularly when produced in ways that don’t emit CO₂ (referred to as green hydrogen), can serve as a clean fuel for transport, power generation, and industrial processes.

 6. The Role of the Ocean in Carbon Sequestration

The ocean is the world’s largest natural carbon sink, absorbing about a quarter of the CO₂ that humans produce. However, there’s a limit to how much CO₂ the ocean can absorb without affecting its chemistry and ecosystems, particularly marine life. Enhancing the ocean’s natural carbon storage capacity in a safe and effective way is a major focus of research and development.

 7. The Importance of Global Collaboration

The fight against climate change is a global challenge that requires cooperation across countries, industries, and communities. International partnerships, like the one between UCLA and Singapore’s national water agency, showcase how collaboration can lead to innovative solutions that might significantly reduce global CO₂ levels.