Adding lime to oceans ...
by George, Russ
You might be considering other options for oceans other than those
of the newly announced effort of Shell and its sequestration initiative
(C&I 2008, 14, 24). If so the key is to consider being a law abiding
citizen, Second Law of Thermodynamics abiding that is. Since adding a
base to the acidic ocean is a one to one bit of chemistry, simply
determining the mass of limestone mineral to be utilitarian is going to
be a real challenge. Consider the fact that the net accumulating surplus
of C[O.sub.2] in the air each year is 6-8 gigatonnes, how many
gigatonnes of limestone might be utilitarian?
Compare that number with the mass of present global ocean cargos.
Putting minerals into the ocean surely is the way to go but the choice
is which minerals.
Russ George
Planktos Science, San Francisco, US
Editor's note: A Comment based on this letter by Russ George
will appear in a future issue.
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