The world's oceans are the largest reservoir for carbon storage on Earth, and the ocean-atmosphere interface is the world's largest contactor for removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Exchange of carbon dioxide at the atmosphere-ocean boundary has resulted in a global acidification of the shallow ocean layer relative to its native pH in the pre-industrial era. Thus, decarbonization of the shallow ocean layer is coupled to decarbonization of the atmosphere – both must be decarbonized to limited atmospheric CO2 rise and to eventually reduce CO2 levels to the 275ppm baseline of the pre-industrial era. We are investigating direct ocean capture (DOC) as an approach for efficient and globally scalable removal of CO2 from oceanwater. Our current research centers on developing electrochemical components for enabling the needed pH swing, capturing, and separating carbon dioxide, and studying the drawdown process for carbon dioxide uptake at the ocean-atmosphere interface.
