Calcium Carbonate Produced by Coccolithophorid Algae in Long Term, Carbon Dioxide Sequestration

Predictions of increasing levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) and the specter of global warming have intensified research efforts to identify ways to sequester carbon. A number of novel avenues of research are being considered, including bioprocessing methods to promote and accelerate biosequestration of CO{sub 2} from the environment through the growth of organisms such as coccolithophorids, which are capable of sequestering CO{sub 2} relatively permanently. Calcium and magnesium carbonates are currently the only proven, long-term storage reservoirs for carbon. Whereas organic carbon is readily oxidized and releases CO2 through microbial decomposition on land and in the sea, carbonates can sequester carbon over geologic time scales. This proposal investigates the use of coccolithophorids - single-celled, marine algae that are the major global producers of calcium carbonate - to sequester CO{sub 2} emissions from power plants. Cultivation of coccolithophorids for calcium carbonate (CaCO{sub 3}) precipitation is environmentally benign and results in a stable product with potential commercial value. Because this method of carbon sequestration does not impact natural ecosystem dynamics, it avoids controversial issues of public acceptability and legality associated with other options such as direct injection of CO{sub 2} into the sea and ocean fertilization. Consequently, cultivation of coccolithophorids could be carried out immediately and the amount of carbon sequestered as CaCO{sub 3} could be readily quantified. The significant advantages of this approach warrant its serious investigation. The major goals of the proposed research are to identify the growth conditions that will result in the maximum amount of CO{sub 2} sequestration through coccolithophorid calcite production and to evaluate the costs/benefits of using coccolithophorid cultivation ponds to abate CO{sub 2} emissions from power plants

CALCIUM CARBONATE PRODUCTION BY COCCOLITHOPHORID ALGAE IN LONG TERM, CARBON DIOXIDE SEQUESTRATION

Predictions of increasing levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) and the specter of global warming have intensified research efforts to identify ways to sequester carbon. A number of novel avenues of research are being considered, including bioprocessing methods to promote and accelerate biosequestration of CO{sub 2} from the environment through the growth of organisms such as coccolithophorids, which are capable of sequestering CO{sub 2} relatively permanently. Calcium and magnesium carbonates are currently the only proven, long-term storage reservoirs for carbon. Whereas organic carbon is readily oxidized and releases CO{sub 2} through microbial decomposition on land and in the sea, carbonates can sequester carbon over geologic time scales. This proposal investigates the use of coccolithophorids--single-celled, marine algae that are the major global producers of calcium carbonate--to sequester CO{sub 2} emissions from power plants. Cultivation of coccolithophorids for calcium carbonate (CaCO{sub 3}) precipitation is environmentally benign and results in a stable product with potential commercial value. Because this method of carbon sequestration does not impact natural ecosystem dynamics, it avoids controversial issues of public acceptability and legality associated with other options such as direct injection of CO{sub 2} into the sea and ocean fertilization. Consequently, cultivation of coccolithophorids could be carried out immediately and the amount of carbon sequestered as CaCO{sub 3} could be readily quantified. The significant advantages of this approach warrant its serious investigation. The major goals of the proposed research are to identify the growth conditions that will result in the maximum amount of CO{sub 2} sequestration through coccolithophorid calcite production and to evaluate the costs/benefits of using coccolithophorid cultivation ponds to abate CO{sub 2} emissions from power plants

Towards an integrated Global Ocean Acidification Observation Network

The autonomous measurement of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) is of great and still increasing importance for addressing many scientific as well as socio-economic questions. Although there is a need for reliable, fast and easy-to-use instrumentation to measure the partial pressure of dissolved CO2 (pCO2) in situ, only few autonomous underwater sensors are available. Here we present the measuring principle as well as the latest development state of a commercial sensor (HydroC™/CO2, CONTROS Systems & Solutions GmbH, Kiel, Germany), which is optimized in a collaboration between the IFM-GEOMAR and the manufacturer. In situ tests and laboratory experiments are essential parts of the comprehensive optimization process, which aims at the successful autonomous long-term deployment on e.g. surface buoys, underwater observatories and floats

The societal challenge of ocean acidification

The carbonate chemistry of the world’s oceans, including their pH, has been remarkably constant for hundreds of thousands of years (Pearson and Palmer, 2000), with typical surface ocean variations between ice ages and warm phases of no more than 0.2 pH units ([Sanyal et al., 1995], [Hönisch and Hemming, 2005] and [Foster, 2008]). However, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the oceans have taken up approximately 30% of the CO2 produced from fossil fuel burning, cement manufacture and land use changes (Sabine et al., 2004). While the invasion of CO2 into the ocean removes this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and thereby dampens global warming, it forms carbonic acid in seawater and lowers ambient surface ocean pH (Broecker and Peng, 1982). Ocean acidification is the direct consequence of the excessive addition of CO2 to seawater (Broecker and Takahashi, 1977) and is therefore inherently more predictable than temperature and precipitation changes due to rising CO2 in the atmosphere. Changes are already measurable today ([Bates, 2001], [Bates et al., 2002], [Takahashi et al., 2003], [Keeling et al., 2004] and [Santana-Casiano et al., 2007]) and will become more pronounced as humankind emits more CO2 into the atmosphere, with surface ocean pH expected to decline by a further 0.3 pH units by the end of the century, corresponding to an approximately 100% increase in ocean acidity (hydrogen ion concentration [H+]), on top of the not, vert, similar0.1 pH unit decline to date ([Caldeira and Wickett, 2003], [Orr et al., 2005] and Solomon et al., 2007 In: S. Solomon et al., Editors, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007).[Solomon et al., 2007]) (Fig. 1). Such a rapid change in ocean pH has very likely not happened since the time the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago ([van der Burgh et al., 1993], [Pearson and Palmer, 2000] and [Pagani et al., 2005]). While the dissolution of carbonate sediments on the bottom of the ocean and the weathering of rocks on land coupled with mixing of surface and deeper waters will eventually restore ocean pH to its pre-industrial state, this process will take up to a million years to complete ([Archer, 2005] and [Ridgwell and Zeebe, 2005])