Ebb Carbon at Sequim facility, Dept of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

[Doug Grandt]

Anybody aware of Ebb Carbon?

(Shared with me by a cousin formerly of Nebraska, recently having relocated to Irvine, CA within the pathway of Hilary.)

The California startup is operating a first-of-a-kind system at a Pacific coast lab to bring more scientific certainty to nascent ocean carbon removal.

21 August 2023

Excerpt 1

The California-based company recently began operating its novel ​“marine carbon dioxide removal” system at the Sequim facility, which is run by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Ebb’s technology uses electrochemistry to split saltwater into its acidic and alkaline parts. The long-term plan is to return alkalinity to the ocean, creating chemical reactions that pull CO2 from the air and store it safely in the sea.

Excerpt 2

On Monday, the two-year-old startup unveiled its first-of-a-kind demonstration project, which is designed to remove 100 metric tons of CO2 per year at full capacity. Along with PNNL, Ebb is partnering with research institutions such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington to better predict how its system could work at scale — and how it could potentially affect ocean ecosystems.

Seems to me there were posts similar to this long ago … searched “alkalinity” and found them:

From: Antonius Gagern and Jan Mazurek

Date: February 20 & 21, 2020

Subject: [CDR] ocean CDR platform and ocean alkalinity video

To the ocean CDR community:

 

Please watch and widely share a video we produced with help of Greg Rau and Phil Renforth. Hopefully more videos like this one coming soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5obQ6aGSyHY&t=3s

[Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement - 4 min animated video]

Are these technically the same or similar?

Best,

Doug Grandt

Sent from my iPhone (audio texting)

[Achim Hoffmann]

Similar but not the same at first sight as they don’t seem to be adding anything else into the ocean, such as ground up rocks. 

They seem to want to piggy-back on existing desalination installations (and with that reduce CAPEX needs, such as pumps). 

It makes sense as you will already have increased salt concentrations and be closer to the solubility concentration of the carbonates which then causes precipitation in the higher pH Chamber of their process.

Question is what happens with the carbonates and if- once they drop back into the ocean again where they will face a lower pH- they can dissolve again.

With these techs I personally see the real opportunity in the lower pH chamber where you might get co2 gas release that you can capture. Obviously, you then need to have a strategy about what to do with the pure co2, but that is then the same question many DAC processes are facing.

The piggy-back on the other hand also caps the future capacity extension as it will be constraint by existing desalination installations (or other water processing plants), similar to the CCS discussion vs DAC.

I can’t see anything groundbreaking here, but you would not necessarily put your secret sauce on the webpage, you might find that with an IP search. 

With all these “new” techs, the advancements are usually marginal (but sometimes bring the key enabling step). Very often it is just the fact that a few guys actually “do” it, what many academics only thought about. 

They seem to use a membrane process at the core which in my head instantly adds OPEX as they need to be serviced/cleaned/replaced over time, especially if they are playing close to the solubility limits. Electrochemical membranes are not cheap.

They will also need electricity.

What I see as a positive is the list of partners as they represent all the established names in this area.

Would I put my money behind this? They would have to surprise me in tech DD with a clear scientific advancement that addresses my concerns above.

Sent from Outlook for iOS

---

From: 'Doug Grandt' via Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC) <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 1:39:47 AM
To: Carbon Dioxide Removal <carbondiox...@googlegroups.com>; NOAC <noac-m...@googlegroups.com>; healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>; Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Greg Rau <gh...@sbcglobal.net>; anto...@ceaconsulting.com <anto...@ceaconsulting.com>; jan...@gmail.com <jan...@gmail.com>; Ron Baiman <rpba...@gmail.com>; John Nissen <johnnis...@gmail.com>
Subject: Ebb Carbon at Sequim facility, Dept of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

 

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