Happy Twos-day! Happy Tuesday!
We know we usually speak about
energy, but this article is one of the strangest ideas we’ve read to help
climate change, and engineers really do think out of the box. Did anyone read The Houston Chronicle’s
Texas Inc Section on Sunday, May 7, 2023, and their reprint of an Associated
Press article called, “Researchers looking to ocean as a way to remove
carbon”? The article is about the Engineering
faculty from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). They have made a floating laboratory vessel
which is removing calcium from the seawater in the Port of Los Angeles. The ocean does many things and has been
called the lungs of the planet for a long time, and it provides this function
by absorbing carbon dioxide through its currents and plants, but at a cost of
making the seawater more acidic which damages delicate ecosystems like coral
reefs. UCLA’s faculty have designed a vessel
to use technology they’ve created called SeaChange which is a process where
an electrical charge is sent through moving seawater in tanks on the vessel and
it causes chemical reaction process that makes the carbon become a solid like
carbon carbonate, and then the seawater is returned to the sea to resume its
job of absorbing more carbon dioxide.
The solid carbon carbonate will then be disposed of by allowing it to
fall to the sea floor. They already have
ideas expanding their SeaChange process and will be having a showing in Singapore
soon. One idea for the new process is it
could be used on sea vessels that travel the seven seas. Wow, if this works to scale this could really
help climate change, and maybe save our coral reefs from the acidic seas that
are destroying them. If you would like
to read more of the article from the Associated Press, please click the
link: California researchers attempt ocean climate solution | AP News.
If you would like to read more
about the SeaChange technology from the University of California Los
Angeles, please click the link: Could the ocean hold the key to reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? | UCLA.
Don’t forget to check out our ESC's website or contact us via the email in the blog, if you need help with
a project.
We hope you have a great and
relaxing night!