Using Salps and Phytoplankton for Carbon Sequestration

We face today the consequences of greenhouse gases emissions in our atmosphere, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide, which is warming our planet. We all need to find ways to reduce carbon dioxide or we will have to live with the extreme events that it is causing such as stronger storms, floods and wildfires.

Nature already has a solution or this problem, the salp. This is a gelatinous creature, not related to jellyfish, that is in the form of a cylinder which floats on the ocean waters.

The salp uses its format to maintain a constant flow of water and they filter it in the process. As a result, the salp can use this capability for two objectives: propulsion and feeding. Salp consumes a large quantity of phytoplankton which is, by nature, a carbon dioxide sequester through its capability of photosynthesis. The salp then consume these phytoplankton and create a very dense fecal pellets that sinks to the bottom of the ocean very quickly. If we take advantage of these two species, we can have a natural carbon sequestration engine.

Salp uses an interesting method of multiplication: cloning. By doing this, they can multiply themselves very fast by creating large sequences of cloned individuals as seen on the figure above. The salps do that when there is a boom of phytoplankton. This means that we can take advantage of this speedy multiplication process to sink a large quantity of carbon dioxide.

To avoid the degeneration problems caused by cloning alone, salps have a sexual multiplication process as shown above. In normal times, the young salps which are born females, transform themselves over time into males and they can inseminate young salps, in a process that does not degenerate the genes because they are now diversifying without the use of the cloning process.

Our project is based on two areas. The first one is the living area for the phytoplankton which is used to feed the salps as seeing above. This photo shows a bioreactor for the multiplication of the phytoplankton which multiplies very fast by using light and carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen. The whole system uses a battery powered system that is fed by solar panels. The equipment consuming energy are the LED lights and the air pump.

Green energy equipment used: 1 solar panel of 5W with power regulator for 5V/1A, 1 power bank with 5Vx2 USB interface, 1 LED light with USB interface, 1 air pump with USB interface

The phytoplankton would then be transferred to the environment controlled area where the salps live, serving as food for them. The photo above shows our prototype for the environment controlled area for the salps. The whole system is fed by solar panels that is connected to a battery. This battery has a transformer that converts the DC power of the battery to 110V required by the transformer that now lower it down again to the 12V required by the Peltier device used for refrigeration.

Green energy equipment used: 1 solar panel of 100W with solar power generator of 300Wh with integrated DC to AC converter, transformer 110V AC to 12V DC and 100W

If built in large scale, this system can be a very efficient carbon sequesters as seen on the figure below:

Comparing the solutions:

The numbers below compares the efficiency of two solutions: the first one is the Direct Air Capture (DAC) using current technology and the second one is the Salp and Phytoplankton (S&P).

Space required:

• DAC requires 0.02 square meters to remove 1 ton of CO2 in 1 day

• S&P requires 100 square kilometers to remove 1 ton of CO2 in  day

Energy required:

• DAC requires 2MWh to remove 1 ton of CO2 in 1 day

• S&P requires solely the energy supplied by the sun

Due to the opposite nature of these two solutions, it is recommended that both of them are used to capture carbon effectively from the atmosphere.

The video below was created for the project:

Bibliography:

- Alison Bosman; Salps play a key role in pumping carbon to the deep ocean; Earth.com; available at https://www.earth.com/news/salps-play-a-key-role-in-pumping-carbon-to-the-deep-ocean/

- Bill Wellock; FSU researchers uncover new role of strange organisms in ocean food web; Florida State University; March 19, 2021; available at https://artsandsciences.fsu.edu/article/fsu-researchers-uncover-new-role-strange-organisms-ocean-food-web

- Policy Forum, Climate Change, Ecology and Biodiversity; Our jelly-like relatives: Common misconceptions about salps; The Nippon Foundation, September 28, 2016; available at: https://archives.nereusprogram.org/our-jelly-like-relatives-common-misconceptions-about-salps/

- Deploy Direct Air Capture, Project Drawdown, available at https://drawdown.org/explorer/deploy-direct-air-capture

- Kathryn Tso, How Much is a Ton of Carbon Dioxide, MIT Climate Portal, available at https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-ton-carbon-dioxide

The Carbon Sequestration Engine Team created this page as part of the Innovation International mentoring program which focus on environmental protection technology solutions. The team members are:

• Nicole Haragutchi (USA)

• Swasti Timande (USA)

• Thayslane de Paula Nascimento (BRAZIL)

• Pietra dos Santos Vieira (BRAZIL)

• Hannah Quanoo (GHANA)

• Felix Kojo Amuadu (GHANA)

• George K. Smith Jr (GHANA)

• Belinda Forson (GHANA)

• Erica Orgeo (GHANA)

• Samuel Fosu (GHANA)

• Ansah Ephraim Fiifi (GHANA)

• Jephter Mensah (GHANA)

• Cheska Mikaella Supangan (PHILIPPINES)

This next video shows the Ghana team after receiving the mentoring class on this project: