PORT ANGELES — The energy company Ebb Carbon’s Project Macoma marine carbon removal system officially launched Thursday following a testing phase this summer on the Port Angeles waterfront.
The project is designed to enhance the ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in the process help make seawater less acidic and thus able to capture more CO2 than untreated seawater.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the ocean absorbs almost 30 percent of the CO2 in the atmosphere.
Project Macoma builds on research begun in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim Bay in 2023.
The process involves pulling seawater from Port Angeles Harbor at Ebb Carbon’s base of operations at the Port of Port Angeles’ Marine Terminal 7. Using an electrochemical process to make it less acidic, it then returns the water the harbor.
Nearly 30 percent of marine life in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca is vulnerable to the impact of ocean acidification — the increase in the acidity of ocean water as it absorbs greater amounts of CO2, Ebb Carbon said.
Changing the ocean’s chemistry can have a negative consequences for shellfish like clams and oysters.
Kyla Westphal, Ebb Carbon’s vice president of external affairs, said the company’s sensors continually monitor seawater at the outfall site and in the harbor to make sure it is in compliance with quality standards set by the state Department of Ecology.
Ebb Carbon is among a number of companies that are financing their ocean carbon removal projects through the sale of carbon credits that enable the purchasers to achieve a smaller carbon footprint without having to reduce their own carbon-producing activities. It has sold carbon credits to Stripe and Microsoft.
The company pays $4,436.64 a month for its lease with the port.
