Major Increase In Ocean Acidity Due To CO2

Santa Barbara, CA - According to a new report recently published by an international team of in the online journal Science Express, the ocean is becoming more acidic off the western coast of North America. The study, conducted in the Summer of 2007, found evidence that corrosive water, a direct result of the ocean's CO₂ absorption, exists less than 20 miles off the coastline.

Previous studies off the western coast of North America have found ocean acidification at deeper depths and farther from the shoreline. The results of this study mark the first time acidified water as a result of CO₂ has been found on the continental shelf of western North America.

"We don't know how this will affect species living in the zone below the level of the lowest tides, out to the edge of the continental shelf," said Debby Lanson, an oceanographer. "We do know that organisms like corals or pteropods are affected by water saturated with CO₂. The impacts on other species, such as shellfish and other juvenile fish that have economic significance, are not yet fully understood."

"We did not expect to see this extent of ocean acidification until the middle to the end of the century," said Dr. Christopher Sabine, an oceanographer with NOAA and professor at University of Washington.

CO₂ emissions are generally acknowledged as a major contributor to the phenomenon of climate change. Current strategies to deal with the CO₂ problem include sequestering the gas in underground geological formations and the ocean floor. The long-term energy costs and viability of long-term sequestering are unknown. Managing the growing CO₂ problem, publicly traded Carbon Sciences, Inc. has a new technology that converts CO₂ in a number of commercially useful products.

Transforming, Not Sequestering, CO₂

Carbon Sciences proposes a completely different approach to the problem of CO₂ - transforming the gas into something useful with commercial value instead of burying it somewhere.

The company has developed a patent-pending, working technology that converts CO₂ into a usable form of Calcium Carbonate. This product - made from ubiquitous CO₂ - has extensive commercial uses, including agriculture, the manufacture of paper, coatings, plastics, glass, ceramics, chalk, dental care, cosmetic products, construction and architectural applications and as a natural buffer used in pollution filters.

Energy Efficient, Clean Technology

Carbon Science's process combines captured CO₂ with readily available mineral feedstocks. Using a patent-pending technology, mineral feedstocks are transformed into Carbonate, a highly stable and useful mineral product.

The patent-pending process uses waste mineral products from coalmines and other mining operations, also know as tailings, as a feedstock for the transformation of CO₂ into useful mineral carbonates. Through a proprietary cyclone and mill system, these particles are processed into extremely fine mineral particulates to maximize the available surface area for reacting with CO₂. This method greatly reduces the energy needed to produce fine particulate minerals, which reduces the overall cost of this carbon dioxide transformation system.

A New Technology

The final product from the conversion of CO₂ gas produces mineral carbonates that are inert, safe for the environment with commercial value. There is no storage risk and the commercial value of the product offsets the costs of traditional carbon capture and sequestration systems.

SOURCE: Carbon Sciences, Inc.