The Naked Scientists
  • Login
  • Register
  • Podcasts
      • The Naked Scientists
      • eLife
      • Naked Genetics
      • Naked Astronomy
      • In short
      • Naked Neuroscience
      • Ask! The Naked Scientists
      • Question of the Week
      • Archive
      • Video
      • SUBSCRIBE to our Podcasts
  • Articles
      • Science News
      • Features
      • Interviews
      • Answers to Science Questions
  • Get Naked
      • Donate
      • Do an Experiment
      • Science Forum
      • Ask a Question
  • About
      • Meet the team
      • Our Sponsors
      • Site Map
      • Contact us

User menu

  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Help
  • Search
  • Tags
  • Recent Topics
  • Login
  • Register
  1. Naked Science Forum
  2. Life Sciences
  3. The Environment
  4. Can we give the ocean an antacid to combat ocean acidification?
« previous next »
  • Print
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Can we give the ocean an antacid to combat ocean acidification?

  • 1 Replies
  • 5357 Views
  • 0 Tags

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline evan_au (OP)

  • Global Moderator
  • Naked Science Forum GOD!
  • ********
  • 11035
  • Activity:
    9%
  • Thanked: 1486 times
Can we give the ocean an antacid to combat ocean acidification?
« on: 19/03/2018 20:40:58 »
I was interested in this story, which claims that you can reduce ocean acidification by converting Carbonic Acid into Sodium Bicarbonate (often used as an antacid).
- Carbonic acid comes from increased levels of CO2 dissolved in seawater. It breaks down corals and had-shelled creatures, and they need to exert more energy to protect themselves.
 
An enzyme used by animals to control pH in the blood might be used to control pH in the ocean, if it could be scaled up.
- Sodium Bicarbonate is a salt, with a more neutral pH
See transcript or listen (11 minutes) at: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/new-approach-buries-carbon-dioxide-safely-in-sea-water/9556660
Logged
 



Offline Bored chemist

  • Naked Science Forum GOD!
  • *******
  • 31101
  • Activity:
    11%
  • Thanked: 1291 times
Re: Can we give the ocean an antacid to combat ocean acidification?
« Reply #1 on: 19/03/2018 22:20:20 »
To properly overcome the effect of carbon dioxide in the water you need a fairly strong base- a stronger base than carbonate. The only practical ones are  hydroxide and oxide.
We could dump massive amounts of calcium oxide into the sea.
However, producing that calcium oxide would require roasting  massive amounts of limestone  to decompose the carbonate and make the oxide.
 And the carbon dioxide produced would (if we didn't trap it somehow) end up in the air, and then in the ocean undoing all the work we tried to do.

There are other options but fundamentally most suffer from the same problem.
There's a few plausible ones
http://www.innovationconcepts.eu/res/literatuurSchuiling/olivineagainstclimatechange23.pdf
Logged
Please disregard all previous signatures.
 
The following users thanked this post: jeffreyH



  • Print
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »
Tags:
 
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...
  • SMF 2.0.15 | SMF © 2017, Simple Machines
    Privacy Policy
    SMFAds for Free Forums
  • Naked Science Forum ©

Page created in 0.763 seconds with 32 queries.

  • Podcasts
  • Articles
  • Get Naked
  • About
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe to newsletter
  • We love feedback

Follow us

cambridge_logo_footer.png

©The Naked Scientists® 2000–2017 | The Naked Scientists® and Naked Science® are registered trademarks created by Dr Chris Smith. Information presented on this website is the opinion of the individual contributors and does not reflect the general views of the administrators, editors, moderators, sponsors, Cambridge University or the public at large.