Halifax scientists have a plan to capture carbon from the atmosphere using mining materials

A Dalhousie University team of scientists — in a joint venture with a company called Planetary Technologies — is now in the next phase of their research to use the power of the ocean to one day reduce the world’s carbon levels.

Ruth Musgrave, assistant professor in the department of oceanography, and her team are measuring the characteristics of the water in the Halifax harbour.

She told CTV National News it is “laying the ground work” in order to test their innovative research on a larger scale.

The team has been researching what would happen if they add large amounts of purified and non-toxic mine tailings into the water in the hopes of accelerating the ocean’s natural process of pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

• Sign up for The Climate Barometer, delivered right to your inbox

The ocean absorbs between one quarter and one third of all carbon dioxide already, but as humans actively spew more and more emissions into the atmosphere, that natural balance is working overtime.

“It’s a race against time that we’re already losing,” Musgrave said. “We’re already seeing dramatic changes to the climate, and that’s only going to accelerate in time.”

Dr. William Burt, chief ocean scientist with Planetary Technologies, says the ocean’s work to clear up our atmosphere means that its current state is not what it used to be.

“The oceans are at very harmful acidic state right now, thanks to [200 to 300 years of] industrial emissions coming into our oceans and making them upwards to 40 per cent more acidic than they were prior to the industrial revolution,” he told CTV News.

But surely, putting waste material from mining into the water is a bad thing, right? Not once the mine tailings have been purified and put to work through the Accelerated Carbon Transition (ACT) Platform, according to scientists.

Their research suggests that not only could the purified mine tailings help the ocean pull carbon dioxide, it could act as an antacid when mixed with sea water, neutralizing the acidity and providing a use for mining waste at the same time.

“And when you do that, that alkalinity will transform carbon dioxide, and by doing that, you decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in that water,” he said.

Future pilot sites are being considered here in Halifax and in the U.K.

And in April, the project got a boost when it caught the attention of the Elon Musk Foundation.

Planetary Technologies are one of fifteen companies chosen to be awarded $1 million through Musk’s competition looking for new ideas to reduce the world’s current carbon levels.

“Winning the Xprize was about validation of our science, validation of our business,” Burt said.

The money will now be used to demonstrate their research on a much larger scale, which would put them in line to potentially win a future $50 million dollar prize. The winner will be announced in 2025, and if Planetary Technologies can demonstrate that their strategy works well enough to remove at least 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year, they could be well on their way to not only the grand prize, but a better world.