Experts mostly agree that combating climate change will take more than halting emissions of climate-warming gases. We also must remove the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that have already been emitted—on the order of gigatons of CO2 removed each year by 2050—in order to achieve net zero emissions.
The oceans contain significantly more CO2 than the atmosphere and have been acting as an important carbon sink for our planet. Peter Agbo, a staff scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division, with a secondary appointment in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, has proposed a novel method for direct ocean capture of carbon using bacteria. Removing CO2 from the oceans will enable them to continue to do their job of absorbing excess CO2 from the atmosphere.
Agbo’s co-investigators on this project are Steven Singer, a senior scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division, and Ruchira Chatterjee, a research associate in MBIB.
Read a Q&A with Agbo about the project in the Berkeley Lab News Center.
