Credit: Illustration: Eric S. Taylor/©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Increasing the alkalinity of seawater allows it to take up carbon dioxide (CO2), where it is durably stored as a neutral compound. The LOC-NESS (Locking away Ocean Carbon in the Northeast Shelf and Slope)
field experiments will release alkalinity along with an inert dye tracer from a research vessel, and monitor the reaction of alkalinity with CO2 and the resulting carbon storage, along with any environmental impacts. Monitoring equipment includes chemical and biological sensors, samples collected and measured in the laboratory, autonomous gliders, drifters, and drone images. LOC-NESS is one of nine research and engineering projects funded to date by the Carbon to Sea Initiative, an effort to accelerate the understanding of OAE as a potential method for large-scale CO2 removal.