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US-based Equatic is going to extract tons of CO2 from the ocean by electrolyzing seawater. The resulting green hydrogen will be used by aviation company Boeing as green fuel.

Some 30 percent of annual CO2 emissions are absorbed by oceans, knows. The company uses a technique that extracts the stored CO2 from the water, releasing green hydrogen.

More than a scientific experiment

"Proportionally, ocean water contains 150 times more CO2 than the air. Therefore, it is much more effective to remove CO2 from ocean water than from the air," Gaurav Sant, founder and managing director of Equatic told me earlier.

In addition to being founder of Equatic, Sant is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of UCLA's Institute for Carbon Management. Researchers at that institute developed the new electrolysis process. The method Sant developed is more than a scientific experiment. With Equatic, he is putting the theory into practice.

CO2 from seawater becomes green hydrogen

The process works as follows: seawater flows through a tube to a tank. There, an electrolyser splits the water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The CO2 is mineralized - that means the CO2 turns into rock. After the CO2 is captured, it is stored in underground, empty gas and oil fields, or salt formations.

What remains is low-CO2 water. The hydrogen gas is captured and can be used as green fuel. The acid content in the water is higher than before, which is why Equatic dissolves an alkaline rock in it. This keeps the natural composition intact. "The seawater discharged into the ocean is as clean as when it was taken from the ocean," Equatic writes. The only difference is that there is less CO2 in the water.

The American company has signed a five-year agreement with aviation company Boeing. Equatic will capture 63,000 tons of CO2 for Boeing and produce 2,100 tons of green hydrogen. The amount of CO2 removed is also measurable "down to the gram," Equatic tells . That's important because of the , such as the projects certified by Verra.

100 kilograms of CO2 per day

Equatic ran a pilot in Los Angeles. There, it extracted 100 kilograms of CO2 a day from the ocean, releasing a few kilograms of green hydrogen. A larger test plant will open late next year in Singapore. There, some 3,500 tons of CO2 should be captured annually. The aim is that by 2030 large plants will be able to remove 1 million tons of CO2 annually and produce 35,000 tons of hydrogen.

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