Pilot project will develop new electrochemical approach to mitigate ocean acidification and enhance ocean-based carbon sequestration

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES, April 28, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ocean Visions today announced an advisory relationship with The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University to pilot and evaluate a new approach aimed at mitigating ocean acidification and enhancing ocean carbon sequestration. The project, Safe Elevation of Alkalinity for the Mitigation of Acidification Through Electrochemistry (SEA MATE), will use electrochemistry to remove acids from the ocean.

During the 2021 phase of the pilot, SEA MATE will prototype an acid removal technique to combat ocean acidification. An additional anticipated benefit of the SEA MATE process is the capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide and its safe long-term sequestration in the ocean as bicarbonate. Ocean Visions has assembled an Expert Team to provide scientific review and guidance on the design of experiments, data analysis, hypothesis testing, and safe operating thresholds. The team will ultimately produce an independent evaluation of the overall potential of the approach, including environmental costs and benefits.

The effort is supported through a partnership between the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust (GET) and Ocean Visions to identify and test technology-based solutions to climate impacts in the ocean. The partnership is founded on shared missions to slow, and ultimately reverse, the planet?s climate crisis.

?Excess carbon dioxide in our air and the ocean is causing dramatic disruptions to our planet; cleaning up this pollution is critical to restore our ocean,? says Brad Ack, executive director & chief innovation officer for Ocean Visions. ?SEA MATE is a promising approach to address one of the most critical impacts of excess carbon ? ocean acidification ? while also tackling the direct cause of too much carbon dioxide.?

?We clean up after oil spills, we should also clean up the ?acid spill? caused by carbon dioxide emissions,? says Dr. Matthew Eisaman, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University, and SEA MATE project lead.

Together with Dr. Brendan Carter, a principal investigator and research scientist with the University of Washington, Eisaman will share SEA MATE plans and findings with the Ocean Visions? Expert Team, which will provide external, third-party review and guidance directed at increasing the probabilities of safe, successful outcomes and subsequent deployment. Specifically, the Ocean Visions? Expert Team will:

- Review SEA MATE?s research and development plan and provide feedback and advice on ways to optimize the design and implementation of the research and development plan to maximize overall performance, efficacy, and data integrity.

- Review potential environmental risks and benefits and upstream and downstream impacts of the electrodialytic process and advise on how to minimize any potential negative impacts and maximize positive impacts.

- Provide review and advice on design of monitoring systems and protocols to measure overall performance, and, in particular, carbon sequestration and environmental impacts of the electrochemical process developed by SEA MATE.

- Review results of the laboratory testing, field tests, and model results as they become available.

- Provide publicly available intermediate and final evaluation reports of the SEA MATE process. These reports will review the overall effort, the validity of the findings, any areas of disagreement and suggested next steps with respect to the research and development plan.

Ocean Visions? Expert Team members include Dr. Ellen Briggs, Dr. David Ho, Dr. Kristy Kroeker, and Dr. William Tarpeh. Dr. David Koweek, Ocean Visions Science Director, is overseeing the effort.

Jessica Keith
Ocean Visions
jessica.keith@oceanvisions.org
Visit us on social media:
Twitter
LinkedIn