“A reaction the planet has been running for billions of years”

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Southern California have made a discovery that could greatly reduce carbon emissions in the shipping industry.

According to Interesting Engineering, a joint team of scientists has developed a reactor that will capture carbon dioxide emissions from vessels and turn them into natural bicarbonate salts, which can retain carbon dioxide for up to 100,000 years.

Scientists have realized that while seawater naturally absorbs a third of the carbon dioxide created in the atmosphere, it increases the acidity of seawater, which causes calcium carbonate to dissolve. This mineral makes up everything from coral skeletons to seashells and is found all over the sea floor.

Calcium carbonate reacts with carbon dioxide as it dissolves, trapping it in bicarbonate salts, which can store it for millennia.

“This is a reaction that the planet has been running for billions of years,” Jess Adkins, a chemical oceanographer at Caltech, told CNN. “If we can speed it up, we have a shot at a safe and permanent way to store CO2.”

The new reactor will channel all the emissions from the ship’s engine into a chamber filled with water and calcium carbonate, collect the new salty water and dump it into the ocean. According to Adkins, this would have no impact on the chemical composition of the sea, reports CNN. He also said that each reactor could handle about half of a ship’s carbon emissions.

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Removing this level of carbon emissions from the atmosphere would be a massive game changer in our fight against continued warming of the planet. According to Interesting Engineering, the shipping industry has a target of net zero carbon emissions in 2050. If this reactor can be deployed on a large scale, it would go an incredibly long way to helping them achieve that goal.

With recent developments in giant sails and hydrogen engines for ships, the possibility of net zero emissions in the shipping industry seems closer than ever.

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