Led by Dr. Katja Fennel at Dalhousie University, the Ocean Alk-align consortium will systematically assess the effectiveness and environmental risks of different alkaline feedstocks in laboratory, mesocosm, and field trials. The international group of scientists includes Co-PIs Dr. Dariia Atamanchuck, Dr. Lennart Bach, Prof. Dr. Jens Hartmann, Dr. David Keller, Prof. Dr. Ulf Riebesell, and Prof. Dr. Kai Schulz. This team will build data-assimilative modeling capabilities to design research, quantify CO₂ removal effectiveness of OAE, and project global scalability of OAE based on  biogeochemical insights, physical oceanography, and global ocean-atmosphere dynamics.

Under Dr. Adam Subhas’ leadership, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is planning to conduct small-scale field trials off of the Northeastern Shelf to design the optimal suite of observational and modeling capabilities needed to safely deploy alkaline feedstock from a ship and quantify the effect on atmospheric CO₂ removal. The interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers includes Dr. Anna Michel, Dr. H. Heather Kim, Dr. Z. Aleck Wang, Research Specialist Jennie Rheuban, Senior Engineer Jason Kapit, Dr. Ke Chen, and Dr. Daniel McCorkle.

Led by Dr. Phil Renforth and Dr Mijndert van der Spek at Heriot-Watt University, a new project called POaET will develop a framework to standardize techno-economic analyses and life cycle assessments for ocean alkalinity enhancement and then implement these frameworks for half a dozen OAE pathways. This will not only allow for a realistic cradle-to-grave assessment of costs per ton of CO₂ removed, but also serve as a starting point for supply chain assessments that are ultimately required to determine scaling barriers of OAE pathways, as well as their impact on people and nature.

Dr. Debora Iglesias Rodriguez and her lab will conduct laboratory and mesocosm studies to assess the ecological response of phytoplankton organisms and communities to different alkalization methods, with particular focus on the Santa Barbara Channel.

CREW Carbon, under the direction of Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, will join forces with Dr. Matthew Eisaman and the Ebb Carbon team to couple Ebb’s electrochemical OAE process with CREW’s engineered enhanced weathering technology. Specifically, the teams are exploring a process that neutralizes and uses the acid removed from the ocean by Ebb’s process to augment enhanced weathering for carbon dioxide removal in CREW’s process, providing a value-added pathway for OAE and engineered enhanced weathering to scale.

Crystal Ocean is a collaboration between Dr. Phil Renforth and Dr. Spyridon Foteinis of Heriot-Watt, Dr. Jens Hartmann of the University of Hamburg, and Dr. Aidong Yang of the University of Oxford to manufacture, at scale, a rare mineral called Ikaite (and other hydrated forms of limestone) which combine three criteria for ideal feedstocks, namely quick dissolution, high purity, and low energy costs.

Under the leadership of Dr. Will Burt and alongside lead developer Dr. Robert Izett, Planetary Technologies is developing a hardware/software prototype for alkalinity delivery via existing outfalls. A downstream sensor package measures pH and suspended solids, and modulates the rate of feedstock addition upstream. This optimizes OAE efficiency while always staying in safe pH ranges.

Dr. Ellen Briggs from Aquatic Labs and Dr. Todd Martz from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography are partnering to develop the first-ever in-situ, reagentless and solid-state sensor that can simultaneously measure total alkalinity and pH. These variables can fully constrain the carbonate chemistry of seawater and are ideal for the monitoring, reporting, and verification of OAE in field settings.

Dr. Jay Werber of the University of Toronto is joining forces with Dr. Charles de Lannoy of McMaster University to develop an ultra-thin membrane for electrochemical OAE processes. If successful, these membranes can halve the electrochemical cost of CO₂-removal per ton  by decreasing both CAPEX and energy consumption.