Ocean-Based Climate Solutions

Using endless free ocean waves as the energy source, our "Oxygenator" upwelling/downwelling pumps bring up nutrient-enriched water to the sunlit upper ocean, triggering blooms of phytoplankton (single-cell plants) which must absorb dissolved CO2 to metabolize the nutrients. Forming the base of the ocean food chain, phytoplankton are consumed by higher trophic species, with the carbon-rich detritus sinking by gravity with some converted into long-term “recalcitrant” CO2 by the microbial carbon pump. The downwelling pump amplifies the down-flow of high-CO2 water below 600m depth where it is isolated from the atmosphere for thousands of years. When scaled-up across the open oceans far from land, up to 1,800 gigatons can be naturally sequestered by 2100 using this technology, at a cost as low as $6.30 per ton. Funding will come from public corporations which gain strategic, financial, and marketing benefits by reaching net-negative CO2. Until now, these entities have freely emitted CO2 while providing products and services we all consume. The cost never was paid, so annual corporate earnings were overstated and accumulated on the corporation’s balance sheet. Our funding mechanism – Stock For Carbon – removes this excess valuation year-by-year as the corporation redresses its cumulative CO2 emissions and becomes cumulatively net-negative CO2. Not being paid in cash, the corporation maintains its working capital, preserving jobs, R&D, and growth. Shareholders initially are diluted but the improved sustainability results in higher stock price and ROI.