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On a slice of the ocean front in west Singapore, a startup is building a plant to turn carbon dioxide from air and seawater into the same material as seashells, in a process that will also produce “green” hydrogen — a much-hyped clean fuel.
The cluster of low-slung buildings starting to take shape in Tuas will become the “world’s largest” ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant when completed later this year, according to Equatic, the startup behind it that was spun out of the University of California at Los Angeles.
The idea is that the plant will pull water from the ocean, zap it with an electric current and run air through it to produce a series of chemical reactions to trap and store carbon dioxide as minerals, which can be put back in the sea or used on land.
It’s a compelling vision of a potential solution in the face of a worsening climate crisis that has fueled unprecedented heat and devastating extreme weather. Efforts to rein in global heating remain hugely off track, and many scientists are now warning that, in addition to rapidly reducing fossil fuels, the world will also need to remove carbon pollution humans have already pumped into the atmosphere.
The cluster of low-slung buildings starting to take shape in Tuas will become the “world’s largest” ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant when completed later this year, according to Equatic, the startup behind it that was spun out of the University of California at Los Angeles.
The idea is that the plant will pull water from the ocean, zap it with an electric current and run air through it to produce a series of chemical reactions to trap and store carbon dioxide as minerals, which can be put back in the sea or used on land.
It’s a compelling vision of a potential solution in the face of a worsening climate crisis that has fueled unprecedented heat and devastating extreme weather. Efforts to rein in global heating remain hugely off track, and many scientists are now warning that, in addition to rapidly reducing fossil fuels, the world will also need to remove carbon pollution humans have already pumped into the atmosphere.
