Local Company Researching Ocean’s Potential for Carbon Dioxide Storage

Researchers in Halifax are investigating the potential for ocean alkalinity
enhancement to safely store atmospheric CO₂.

“We’re pretty excited about it that’s for sure,” said Will Burt, Chief Ocean Scientist for Planetary Technologies and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Oceanography at Dalhousie University.

Based in Dartmouth, Planetary’s mission is to enhance the ocean’s natural ability to take up and store CO₂ through carbon dioxide removal and storage.

Researchers from Dalhousie University’s Department of Oceanography and the Dalhousie-led Ocean Alk-Align project team are collaborating with Planetary to provide independent analysis and develop methods for modelling, monitoring, reporting and verifying the outcomes of Planetary Technologies’ ocean alkalinity enhancement field tests.

This is the second year for field tests in Halifax Harbour at Nova Scotia Power’s Tufts Cove Generation Station.

“Field testing is ongoing. We’re a pretty small team but we’ve brought people into the team that focus on communication. We’re intending to release newsletters monthly which is more than we’ve done in the past. This research will go probably through to January and we’ll obviously be sharing the results once its over but we intend to share results as we go,” said Burt.

The basic premise, said Burt, is to make the ocean more alkaline by adding a basic mineral that dissolves and neutralizes the acid in the ocean.

“So, by doing that, you lower the amount of acid in the ocean. It has less CO₂ than it did before, so now you’ve created a vacuum. Essentially where the air has more CO₂ than the water does, the ocean naturally picks up that CO₂. The gas moves from the air into the
water and that is how you remove it,” explained Burt.

“One thing we’re doing is counteracting the ocean’s acidification. The oceans have been taking up our CO₂ emissions since we’ve started making them. The oceans are 30 per cent more acidic than they were 200 years ago, having a whole bunch of ecological impacts across the world, not just Nova Scotia,” said Burt.

The source of the alkalinity in the trial is magnesium oxide, an antacid, which is mixed in a tank with seawater in dry powder form to produce a magnesium hydroxide slurry. The slurry is then added to the existing outfall and carried into the receiving waters, where samples are taken regularly at several points upstream and downstream of the addition point and in the larger harbour.

Burt said last year’s field testing “was hugely successful. The research team got so much data and took a really big step forward in understanding is this going to work and is this going to be safe at scale. There’s a lot more work to do but a really good first step.”

Burt said one of the things Planetary is trying to do is actively engage with the fishing community. Last March, Burt was a guest speaker at the Fishermen and Scientists Research Society annual conference in Halifax “to tell everybody what we were up to.”

Planetary has a team dedicated to building relationships and understanding, making sure people are aware of what they are doing. “It’s challenging for small groups like us to reach all the different corners of the ocean space, but fishers are a big part of that,” he said.

Burt said there is global interest in marine acidification. “This is something communities will have a keen interest in. I’m originally from Vancouver and there’s a pretty big acidification problem in that part of the world.”

Planetary has projects in other places but they are not as advanced as the Halifax project, said Burt. “Anyone who wants to take an interest, this could be something done in other parts of Nova Scotia as well. We cast the net broadly.”

Burt said Planetary will be continuing to work closely with Dalhousie and “building out all the different ways that we research over the next three or four years. It creates the opportunity to keep going at this one site. Keeping building the research. Continue as we’re doing.”

Further information about Planetary and the Halifax project can be found online: www.planetarytech.com/projects/nova-scotia