CORE TECHNOLOGY
GREENHOUSE GAS MITIGATION
Earth Ocean & Space
Pty Ltd hold patents for a Greenhouse gas mitigation technology as described
below.
The Ocean
Nourishment organic carbon cycle in the ocean shows a large amount of carbon limited
by the amount of nutrients in the ocean. The Ocean Nourishment process mimics
nature by providing supplimentary nutrients to increase the size of the organic
carbon cycle. Nourishment for the ocean is obtained from the atmosphere using
natural gas as fuel stock by a process that releases little carbon dioxide. The
nourishment is delivered at the edge of the continent shelf by pipeline and
then swept over the deep ocean by prevailing currents. Enhanced photosynthesis
consumes from each plant, 10 million tons of carbon dioxide per year,
generating a valuable stream of carbon credits. In addition, increased fish
stocks help restore the health of the oceans.
Ocean
Nourishment is a new concept that is needed to manage the climate and increase
the supply of economical protein. It was discussed in Jones and Young (1997)
Engineering a large sustainable world fishery. Environmental Conservation, 24,
99-104.
The Ocean Nourishment process is predicated on a number of observations of the
ocean organic carbon cycle.
1 Ocean Nourishment is to be carried out in those areas short of macronutrients
but with excess micronutrients. (In the longer term it is proposed to supply
all the nutrients, both macro and micro nutrients making the concept site
independent). This will change the ecology in regions nourished. It will no
longer be oligotrophic.
2 On time scales of years and ocean space scales, export equals new primary
production. [Losses of nutrient in secondary production is negligible. The
fraction of primary production exported determines the time for total export,
not the amount.]
3 For new primary production, carbon molecules to nitrogen molecules on the
average are in the Redfield ratio and that is near 7:1 or 106/16.
4 Of carbon exported to depths greater than the top of the permanent
thermocline, only a small fraction reaches the sea floor (in deep water) and
the rest eventually returns to the surface ocean after hundreds to thousands of
years.
5. When the carbon exported by Ocean Nourishment returns to the surface, most
of the added nitrogen is again available to support photosynthesis and so
repeats the cycle.
6. In the absence of additional silica, diatoms are not expected to dominate
the assemblage of phytoplankton in the enriched water. The Redfield ratio needs
to be replaced when estimating carbon export for phytoplankton incorporating
calcium carbonate.
7 Some additional GHG is produced in the Ocean Nourishment process and needs to
be considered in calculating the effective storage of greenhouse gas.
8. Some of the new primary production passes thru the food chain. Marine
products taken from the sea and consumed on land are a loss to the ocean carbon
store. Fish are about 11% carbon (see Jones, 2004 on page 535). The wild fish
catch is about 100Mt/yr. CO2 loss from the ocean store by fishing is 11x44/12 =
40 Mt/yr. This is small compared with a global new primary production of
10,000*44/12 MtCO2 per year. Thus leakage due to fish harvest can be a small
fraction of the carbon stored by macronutrient addition. The other parts of the
food chain that are not harvested are eventually exported from the surface
ocean into the organic carbon cycle.
Patent US 5992089 and AUS 2004907160
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