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PUB to build world’s largest facility to help remove CO2 from ocean

2024-02-27 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – As part of its efforts to tackle climate change, Singapore will be constructing the world’s largest facility to boost the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

The US$20 million (S$27 million) plant, once fully operational in 2025, will be able to remove some 3,650 tonnes of CO2 from the ocean yearly, while helping PUB to decarbonise its water treatment processes, the national water agency said on Feb 27.

When the seawater is pumped back into the ocean, it has the capacity to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.

The plan comes after two smaller pilot facilities – one in PUB’s R&D desalination plant in Tuas, and the other in the Port of Los Angeles – proved successful in removing CO2.

Both plants, which were set up in April 2023, are each able to remove some 100kg of the greenhouse gas from the ocean each day.

The technology, designed by American start-up Equatic, works by pumping seawater from adjacent desalination plants through electricity. This leads to a series of chemical reactions that split the seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. The dissolved CO2 is combined with minerals in seawater like calcium and magnesium to produce solid limestone – essentially trapping the CO2 for at least 10,000 years.

The process mimics the natural formation of seashells, and the solid calcium and magnesium-based materials can either be stored on the ocean floor, or potentially be used for construction materials if found viable.

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The new plant known as Equatic-1, which will replace the one in Tuas, will demonstrate if the CO2 removal technology can work on a larger scale to meet PUB’s targets.

The planned facility will also produce some 300kg of hydrogen daily, which can power the plant or be used in other industrial applications.

Equatic-1 is expected to begin operations in the last quarter of 2024, starting with one tonne a day, with help from a multidisciplinary team comprising researchers and technology-scaling experts from the start-up and the Institute for Carbon Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This will be scaled up to 10 tonnes per day in the second quarter of 2025.

As PUB’s water treatment processes, including desalination, are energy-intensive, it is looking to invest in research and development to reduce energy use and help capture and remove CO2 from its operations. The agency has a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045.

The new plant will be equipped to remove some 10 tonnes of CO2 a day – a hundred times more than each of the two existing pilot plants.

PUB said the processed seawater will be further treated to reduce any potential impact to the marine environment. “PUB and Equatic will closely monitor any environmental impact arising from the operations of the demonstration plant (Equatic-1) via an independent consultant,” said its spokesman.

Once the new facility proves successful, Equatic will scale and commercialise its technology globally, said Professor Gaurav Sant, co-founder of the start-up and director of the Institute for Carbon Management.

On a commercial scale, the plant will be able to remove some 110,000 tonnes of CO2 yearly, equivalent to the carbon emissions of 25,000 people.