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Michael Maccracken

May 3, 2013
05:44

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I think the proposal would be strengthened by adding some clarifying comments on a couple of questions: 1. While there are many ocean areas where there is little sea life, this is mainly because there are few, if any nutrients. Presumably you would want to be bringing nutrients up to the kelp, which could be done by wave powered pumps or something similar. Could you elaborate on your thoughts about this. 2. While Fiji offers some sheltered bays and it would be possible to keep the kelp in a given location, where does one find enough area for scaling up to the size that the proposal mentions? Would it be done in shallow coastal areas where anchors could be deployed? How would location be held in deep ocean areas and what would keep the kelp bed in place so that waters (and maybe nutrients) could flow through them? 3. Some time back in the 1990s, the Methanol Institute had a proposal like this to farm the ocean. The proposed to use algae from the Galapagos (to avoid introducing invasive species) in the tropical regions west of the Galapagos. They would grow the algae on a large plastic frame holding the algae in place and the whole system would be held in place by drag chutes in both the surface and subsurface currents (which happen at the Equator to go in opposite directions). Their idea was to mow or harvest the algae on a regular basis and convert it on site to methanol, and then to ship that to ports around the world (now, methanol is not the most benign of fuels, but it is a liquid, so storage and transport is easier than for methane). So, it would be interesting to understand how this proposal would work on some of the key issues that they had covered.

Mark Capron

May 3, 2013
08:33

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Mike, If you like the answers (underlined in Action 1), does our team get your support?

James Greyson

May 23, 2013
07:12

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Hi Mark, 50 Gt is very impressive but I'm missing the info on how you would do it. Keen to learn. Thanks, James

Mark Capron

May 23, 2013
11:59

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Plenty of explanation and details in "Negative carbon via Ocean Afforestation" N'Yeurt, Chynoweth, me, and Stewart, PSEP, November 2012. If you don't mind an "Author's version" go to the bottom of the page at http://podenergy.org/Ocean_Afforestation.html . In short, we grow seaweed, make biogas, and recycle the plant nutrients to grow more seaweed. It's like what happens in the ocean naturally, but speed the nutrient cycle up 100 to 1,000 times faster than in nature. Biogas is 60% bio-CH4 (methane) and 40% bio-CO2. When producing 600 quads/yr of bio-CH4, we can capture and store 19 billion tons/yr of bio-CO2. We need people to capture the 34 billion tons/yr of combustion-CO2 when burning the bio-CH4. 19 + 34 = 53, but I rounded down. Thanks for the support.

James Greyson

May 24, 2013
04:13

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Many thanks Mark. Your link goes to a page which again is short on how-to info. There are further links to 8 other documents which is very informative but I'm wondering if this proposal would benefit from some of this mass of info adapted briefly into the available text fields?

Mark Capron

May 24, 2013
10:59

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Blindspotter, Sure. But not here in the Geoengineering category. Just a few day ago, we realized we do not want to win in Geoengineering. Some geoengineering is too obnoxious to many people and attracts a lot of opposition and regulation. Plus, plenty of "geoengineers" would complain Ocean Afforestation is too slow and difficult, too much mitigation and adaptation to be considered geoengineering. We are an orphan ecosystem, not fitting into the current boxes (silos, categories, etc.). Ocean Afforestation is an ecosystem the best overall action we ahve seen to stop and then reverse rapid planet change, but not the best in each silo (category, box, etc.). "Scaling renewables ..." is the next best fit in the 2013 Climate Colab list of categories (boxes, silos, etc.). Anyone can add to the Ocean Foresters entry. Fiji is a good place to start Ocean Afforestation.