US scientists say they have come up with a game-changing device that could hugely reduce carbon emissions in the shipping industry, The Cool Down reported.
Citing a report in Interesting Engineering, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Southern California revealed they have developed a reactor that can capture sea vessels’ carbon dioxide emissions and convert them into natural bicarbonate salts, the story continued.
The salts can hold carbon dioxide for up to 100,000 years in a natural process which increases the acidity of the seawater, leading to the breakdown of calcium carbonate which traps the carbon dioxide in bicarbonate salts as it dissolves.
“This is a reaction that the planet has been running for billions of years,” Jess Adkins, a chemical oceanographer from Caltech, told CNN. “If we can just speed it up, we have a shot at a safe and permanent way of storing CO2.”
Read the full story: The Cool Down
- By Sean O’Meara
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