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Turning back the clockon climate change
The oceans are already the world’s largest carbonsink, soaking up a staggering 2bn tonnes ofcarbon every year. Adding alkalis would makethem even better, by increasing the seas’ abilityto take up CO
2
from the atmosphere and reducingtheir ability to desorb it back (Scheme 1).Haroon Kheshgi at Exxon Mobil suggestedadding lime (CaO), which is soluble, to seawaterin 1995 (
Energy
, 1995,
20
, 915). However,the idea was quickly dismissed as too energyintensive and so costly. Producing lime involvesheating or calcining limestone [Equation 1] ata temperature of 900
0
C and consumes 2.67GJ/tonne of limestone calcined. It also generatescarbon dioxide in the process.But Tim Kruger, a management consultantwith London firm Corven, and a Cambridgenatural sciences graduate, believes he hasa way of making the idea workable. To carryout the process more cost-effectively, Krugerproposes mining limestone in regions wherethere is access to plenty of stranded energy,too remote from the market to make iteconomically viable.Possible energy sources include natural gas,that is currently flared, solar or nuclear power.Australia’s Nullarbor Plain is a prime locationas it not only has 10 000km
3
of limestone, butsoaks up roughly 20MJ m-
2
of solar irradiationevery day.
Environment
Chemistry & Industry 21 July 2008
24
Nullarbor Plain, south Australia:world’s largest resource of limestone
A technology to reverse climate change? To reduce ocean acidification? And thatalso promises to increase food production? Cath O’Driscoll investigates
The world’s oceans currently absorb2bn tonnes of carbon/year
Adding alkalis could further boost thatcapacity
Limestone could hold the answer toreversing climate change
In Brief
C l a v e r C a r r o l l
CO
2
+H
2
O
H
2
CO
3
H
+
+ HCO
3-
2H
+
+ CO
32-
Scheme 1. Adding alkalinity to seawater
CaCO
3
CaO + CO
2
Equation 1 (produces 1 mol CO
2
)
Equation 1
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