Stability of alkalinity in Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) approaches – consequences for durability of CO2 storage

• Main Authors: Hartmann, Jens, Suitner, Niels, Lim, Carl, Schneider, Julieta, Marín-Samper, Laura, Arístegui, Javier, Renforth, Phil, Taucher, Jan, Riebesell, Ulf
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2022-126; https://bg.copernicus.org/preprints/bg-2022-126/

According to modelling studies, ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is one of the proposed carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches with large potential, and the beneficial side effect of counteracting ocean acidification. The real-world application of OAE, however, remains unclear as most basic assumptions are untested. Before large-scale deployment can be considered, safe and sustainable procedures for the addition of alkalinity to seawater must be identified and governance established. One of the concerns is the stability of alkalinity when added to seawater. Seawater is already supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate minerals, and an increase in total alkalinity together with a corresponding shift in carbonate chemistry towards higher carbonate ion concentrations would result in further increase in supersaturation, and potentially to solid carbonate precipitation. Precipitation of carbonate minerals consumes alkalinity and increases dissolved CO 2 in seawater, thereby reducing the efficiency of OAE for CO 2 removal. In order to address the application of alkaline solution as well as fine particulate alkaline solids, a set of six experiments was performed using natural seawater with alkalinity of around 2,400 μmol/kgw. The application of CO 2 -equilibrated alkaline solution bears the lowest risk of losing alkalinity due to carbonate formation if added total alkalinity (ΔTA) is less than 2,400 μmol/kgw. The addition of reactive alkaline solids can cause a net loss of alkalinity if ΔTA > 600 μmol/kgw (e.g., for Mg(OH) 2 ). Commercially available Ca(OH) 2 causes in general a net loss in TA for the tested amounts of TA addition, which has consequences for suggested use of slurries supplied from ships. The application of excessive amounts of Ca(OH) 2 , exceeding a threshold for alkalinity loss, resulted in a massive increase in TA (> 20,000 μmol/kgw) at the cost of lower efficiency and resultant high pH values > 9.5. Our results indicate that using an alkaline solution instead of reactive alkaline ...