According to a recent research, the future of carbon capture could be linked with the ability of sea urchins to precipitate calcium carbonate in their skeletons.

The conventional Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), though a promising technique, has been applied only in few pilot projects worldwide so far. The main obstacles to the diffusion of this method are the high costs of capturing the CO2 and of finding a proper site for its injection in underground reservoirs. Moreover there is also the risk of the gas eventually leaking back into the atmosphere.

However, studying these marine animals, the researchers of Newcastle University found that the body surface of sea urchin larvae was rich in nickel, which was supposed to act as a catalyzer for the formation of calcium carbonate starting from the CO2 dissolved in the water.

The researchers then proved that the addition of nickel nano-particles in a water solution of carbonic acid resulted in the complete removal of the CO2 through the precipitation of calcium carbonate, a stable and non toxic compound. In an industrial use, the process developed by the Newcastle team would involve passing the waste gas directly from the chimney top, through a water column rich in nickel nano-particles and recovering the solid calcium carbonate from the bottom. In addition, nickel could be easily recovered from the precipitate thanks to its magnetic properties, and reused several times.

The system appears to be cheap and effective and the next step will be its application to industrial processes.

For more information please visit the University press release