Problem:

Most volcanoes lie close to the oceans, and every year millions of tonnes of volcanic ash falls into them and settles to the seafloor.  Once there, it increases carbon storage in marine sediments and reduces atmospheric CO2 levels. But it remains in near the volcano

Solution:

A team from the University’ of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science has modelled the impact of spreading volcanic ash from a ship to an area of ocean floor to help amplify natural processes which lock away CO2 in the seabed.

They found the technique has the potential to be cheaper, technologically simpler and less invasive than other techniques to remove harmful gases.

The scientists modelled the effect of distributing volcanic ash from a ship to an area of ocean. The results suggest that this method could sequester as much as 2300 tonnes of CO2 per 50,000 tonnes of ash delivered for a cost of $50 per tonne of CO2 sequestered – much cheaper than most other GGR methods.

In addition, the approach is simply an augmentation of a naturally occurring process, it does not involve expensive technology and it does not require repurposing valuable agricultural land.

Discover Solution 240: Plogging

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