UAE could be the ideal place to test unique climate change solution
The range is home to one of the world’s largest deposits of olivine, a green mineral that a startup wants to extract, grind up and scatter along shorelines to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The world will need to remove billions of tons of CO2 directly from the air each year by the middle of the century to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
A growing number of startups are attempting to do so, using techniques that range from carbon-capturing machines to sequestering bio-oil underground. And some are turning to the ocean — which already absorbs about a quarter of all CO2 emissions — as a potential solution, including San Francisco-based Vesta.
The firm wants to dump ground-up olivine on beaches and into seawater in an attempt to speed up the ocean’s natural ability to remove CO2.
As the olivine dissolves in seawater, a chemical reaction occurs that pulls CO2 from the air and eventually locks it up in the ocean in dissolved bicarbonate form. It’s one of a number of techniques known as enhanced rock weathering startups are testing on land and at sea.
Vesta has tested its technology on a beach in New York’s Hamptons, spreading olivine on the coast and mixing it with sand. But the startup has set its sights further afield for its next project, believing the Middle East may offer the best shot at capturing CO2 cheaply and at scale.
“What we’re looking for is locations which have large amounts of the mineral and the right oceanographic conditions,” Tom Green, Vesta’s chief executive officer said.
