New tech alert!

A new shipping technology was recently introduced that has the capability of trapping carbon dioxide from cargo ships and storing it in stable ocean salts. The reactors, to be attached on ships' hulls, will take care of the conversion process, by turning exhaust emissions, via a reaction involving seawater and limestone, into bicarbonate salts. The salty water, with locked CO2, is thereby harmless and can be released back in the ocean.

Screengrab from Calcarea webpage

'A shot at a safe and permanent way of storing CO2': Calcarea

Screengrab from Calcarea webpage

Invented by the Caltech-affiliated startup Calcarea, the decarbonization technique has magnanimous potential of aiding the maritime sector reach its target for net-zero emissions. The solution imitates natural processes of seawater and the reaction process, which usually takes 100,000 years, is sped up through the firm's reactors.

“This is a reaction that the planet has been running for billions of years,” Adkins states, as quoted by CNN. “If we can just speed it up, we have a shot at a safe and permanent way of storing CO2.”

Calcarea, a dedicated startup to fight climate change, is the brainchild of Caltech's chemical oceanographer Jess Adkins. Committed to sequestering CO2, the company is "focused on using the Accelerated Weathering of Limestone (AWL) on large ships to both specifically decarbonize the shipping industry," it writes.