Vesta Coastal Carbon Capture

Vesta seeks to galvanise the global deployment of coastal carbon capture projects

Vesta - a research-based organisation dedicated to further the science of Coastal Carbon Capture and galvanise global deployment - harnesses the power of the oceans to accelerate the Earth's natural long-term carbon dioxide removal process and enhance coastal resilience.

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By funding this project you are contributing to their work. You will receive impact reports and measurements but you won't receive a carbon credit.

Active since: 19 March 2022

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Carbon Ocean alkalinity enhancement

Background

After 3.5 years of lab-based research, Vesta launched the world’s first-ever field trials of Coastal Carbon Capture. Vesta’s NY site is part of a coastal protection project, coupling climate adaptation and mitigation. Vesta is also developing a marsh restoration application, through our collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, National Park Service, and US Geological Survey on a saltmarsh pilot experiment. Preliminary results from fieldwork continue to demonstrate Coastal Carbon Capture's potential as a planetary-scale, nature-based climate solution.

Why did we choose this project?

In order to keep global warming as close to 1.5C as possible, reduction of carbon dioxide emissions alone will not be sufficient, we must also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Vesta's innovative deployment of coastal enhanced weathering has enormous potential for cheap, permanent carbon capture at a massive scale. At scale, Coastal Carbon Capture could remove more than a gigatonne (1 billion tonnes +) of CO2 from the atmosphere annually while locally reducing ocean acidity.

How does it work?

Coastal Carbon Capture is a nature-based carbon removal process that enhances the ocean’s natural capacity to sequester and store carbon dioxide. It works by adding the common mineral olivine to coastal areas, where it dissolves and accelerates the Earth’s long-term carbon removal process, the carbonate-silicate cycle. The dissolution of olivine in seawater causes a natural chemical reaction wherein atmospheric CO2 is sequestered into seawater as bicarbonate, permanently storing carbon in this safe, alkaline form.

How do we know it's working?

There are over 30 years of lab-based research and academic support towards the massive potential for this scalable nature-based climate solution. Vesta built on these studies, first through years of lab-based experiments, and now, having observed no adverse ecological effects, by conducting rigorous demonstration pilots. Vesta’s deployments have furthered recommendations by the National Academies of Sciences and NOAA’s Carbon Dioxide Removal report, which highlight the solution’s immense potential.

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Curious about the chemistry behind Project Vesta’s work? This reaction is the foundation of the Long-Term Inorganic Carbon Cycle. This has been occurring for billions of years, stabilizing Earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and in turn enabling life to thrive. In fact, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) through natural rock weathering consumes ~1 gigaton of CO2 every year (Ciais et al. 2013). Indeed, there are naturally-occurring olivine beaches with diverse ecosystems like Papakōlea Beach in Hawaiʻi, where we are researching the local ecology, ecotoxicology, olivine weathering rates, and secondary mineral formation.

Over a month ago

Globally we need to increase the scale of durable carbon removal by a factor of about 10 million. As we expand our coastal carbon capture projects, economies of scale will continue to drive the price down and the impact of CDR up.

Over a month ago

The ocean is 30% more acidic than it was at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Most of the carbon released into the atmosphere has been absorbed by the ocean. As olivine dissolves and carbon is sequestered, the reaction aids the reversal of ocean acidification.

Over a month ago

With 2 trillion tonnes of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today, for net-zero to be a realistic target, we must accelerate efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and here is how Vesta is leading the way.

Over a month ago

At their field pilot in Long Island, New York Vesta uses technology to measure the effects of coastal carbon capture on the ocean and better understand the carbon removal reaction and rate.

Over a month ago

Alongside rapid and deep emission cuts, the latest IPCC report states - with high confidence - that keeping global warming below 2°C will be nearly impossible without carbon dioxide removal. With this in mind, we are thrilled to have added project Vesta, which demonstrates enormous promise as a scalable carbon removal option. By accelerating the natural process of coastal carbon capture, Vesta aims to remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere while reducing ocean acidity and protecting coastal ecosystems. In 2022, Vesta and collaborators deployed the world's first Coastal Carbon Capture field pilot in Long Island, New York and a pilot experiment in Massachusetts. Now, Vesta is collecting the first ever data demonstrating Coastal Carbon Capture carbon removal in the field, while also preparing for their 2023 deployment.

Over a month ago

Vesta Coastal Carbon Capture was verified by Pinwheel

Over a month ago

Vesta Coastal Carbon Capture joined Pinwheel!

Over a month ago