Project To Suck Carbon From The Sea Begins In UK

PML scientists and colleagues from the University of Exeter have commenced operation for the SeaCURE project pilot plant Weymouth, Dorset.

The ocean currently absorbs around 25% of the CO₂ emitted each year by humans. SeaCURE’s approach seeks to enhance this capacity further by extracting CO₂ from seawater, thereby enabling further absorption of atmospheric CO₂.

The process involves acidifying seawater to convert dissolved carbon into gaseous CO₂, which is then captured and stored. The treated water is subsequently rebalanced using alkaline substances before being returned to the marine environment. Although the current scale is modest – removing around 100 tonnes of CO₂ annually – the project aims to assess the feasibility of expanding the method.

In parallel, SeaCURE scientists, including Guy Hooper – PhD researcher with PML and the University of Exeter – are studying potential ecological impacts. As marine organisms such as phytoplankton and molluscs depend on dissolved carbon for processes like photosynthesis and shell formation, understanding and mitigating any adverse effects is essential.

The SeaCURE pilot plant – which has been built at Weymouth SEA LIFE Centre on the South Coast of England – has been funded by a £3 million grant from the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as part of its search for technologies that fight climate change.

It is one of 15 pilot projects being backed in the UK as part of efforts to develop technologies that capture and store greenhouse gases.