Canadian firm hopes to dump minerals in sea off coast of Cornwall in climate change experiment

[paulsutton]

I am guessing this is in the right place,  This was on the local news today

Canadian firm hopes to dump minerals in sea off coast of Cornwall in climate change experiment

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2023-03-02/firm-hopes-to-dump-minerals-off-cornish-coast-in-climate-change-experiment

Is there any actual scientific basis behind dumping MgOH in to the sea,   to reduce acidity,  ?

Another question is

if this is so good, why not do this off the Canadian coastline. ?

Just seems dodgy to me.

This does seem related to an experiment I am trying to do which is to determine the pH of seawater (done)  next step is to figure out if eggshells can affect the pH too, as in reduce the acidity, like they do with vinegar,   Experiment to follow on a sample,.  I think i may have mentioned this in the amateur science section.

Paul

[swansont]

24 minutes ago, paulsutton said:

Is there any actual scientific basis behind dumping MgOH in to the sea,   to reduce acidity,  ?

It’s an antacid, but not particularly soluble. But they don’t say specifically what happens to the carbon. If it precipitates out (Magnesium bicarbonate?) then the ocean can absorb more CO2. 

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, swansont said:

It’s an antacid, but not particularly soluble. But they don’t say specifically what happens to the carbon. If it precipitates out (Magnesium bicarbonate?) then the ocean can absorb more CO2. 

I assume the objective must be to precipitate MgCO3. Mg(HCO3)2 does not exist as a solid (presume the Mg ++ cation is too small for 2 big HCO3- anions) so it won't precipitate as bicarbonate. Or alternatively just to convert dissolved CO2 to HCO3- in solution. But it seems at first glance a bit daft. Where would anyone get huge enough quantities of Mg(OH)2 from, in order to make an impact on the vast amount of CO2 dissolved in seawater? 

I've found the publicity blurb from the company in question: https://www.planetarytech.com/projects/cornwall/.  It looks as if it is just a small scale exercise to confirm some models. There is no explanation of where they would get enough minerals to make a real change to the oceanic CO2 level, or what the effect might be of jacking up dissolved bicarbonate and metal cation concentrations. I do not believe it would be biologically neutral. 

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by exchemist

[TheVat]

Seems like restoring a rainforest somewhere, or expanding a seagrass meadow, would fix more carbon than this approach, which sounds more like a recipe for giving marine mammals a case of the trots.  MgOH is a laxative.

[paulsutton]

On 4/29/2023 at 1:12 AM, TheVat said:

Seems like restoring a rainforest somewhere, or expanding a seagrass meadow, would fix more carbon than this approach, which sounds more like a recipe for giving marine mammals a case of the trots.  MgOH is a laxative.

And perhaps any humans swimming in the sea in that area.