UTA Researcher Uses Seawater to Remove Carbon Dioxide From Atmosphere

Erika La Plante, PhD

A University of Texas at Arlington researcher is working to create a process that uses seawater to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Erika La Plante, assistant professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, received a $125,000 subgrant from the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) as part of a larger Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy grant for the work.

Seawater with a high pH can be used to create minerals, such as magnesium hydroxide, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To accomplish this, seawater is flowed into a reactor, where electrochemical reactions form magnesium hydroxide, calcium carbonate or magnesium carbonate, trapping the carbon dioxide for at least an estimated 10,000 to 100,000 years.