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However a study Last week in the journal Frontiers in Climate suggests there may be limitations to a promising version of the strategy, which relies on a volcanic mineral known as olivine. Theoretically, adding ground olivine should increase the alkalinity of seawater, which helps convert the carbon in the water into a stable form and allows the oceans to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Germany have recently dissolved fine-grained sand, mainly olivine, in artificial seawater. They found that over a period of 134 days, the alkalinity of the water actually decreased. According to the researchers, these and other factors reduced the amount of carbon removed by a factor of five compared to olivine’s theoretical potential.

The study noted that other research groups have also recently discovered that dissolving olivine in filtered and artificial seawater produces a less-than-expected increase in alkalinity. Again a new preprint paper found similarly confusing results for other minerals expected to increase ocean alkalinity.

Meanwhile, a few additional studies recently have cast doubts on a different ocean-based approach: growing seaweed and sinking to absorb and store carbon.

Finding viable ways to reduce greenhouse gases will be vital in the coming decades. National Academies report Regarding removing ocean-based carbon in December, he noted that the world may need to absorb another 10 billion tons per year by mid-century to limit warming to 2˚C.

Increasing ocean alkalinity could theoretically remove tens of billions of tons on its own each year. according to this research group Ocean Visions. But the National Academies panel noted that rocks of roughly similar scale would need to be extracted, ground and transported, all of which would have significant environmental consequences.

The new studies did not give the final and definitive promise as to whether any of these methods would be viable ways to help meet these carbon removal goals.

But Michael Fuhr, one of the authors of the olivine study and a doctoral student at GEOMAR, says their findings show that this approach “so far hasn’t been as straightforward as one might expect.” He adds that it may only work in certain places where ocean chemistry is right. This may include areas where the salinity of the waters is low but rich in organic residues that will increase acidity.

Fuhr and others say additional lab experiments and fieldwork will be needed to determine how well this method works in the real world, what ideal conditions are, or whether other materials are more promising.

Maria-Elena Vorrath, a researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Studies, said in an email that the study shows that the olivine process does not work the way we assume. But she stressed that the mineral remains “one of the most enduring and promising ways nature has offered us.”