How engineers are thinking to reverse the problem

  • Total Alkalinity (TA), or the sum of all the bases minus the sum of all the acids, helps mitigate ocean acidification. Thus, engineers are thinking of remediation by adding alkalinity-generating compounds to the oceans

  • Naturally, the weathering of silicate minerals (e.g., CaSiO3 + 2CO2 + 3H2O → Ca2+ + 2HCO3- + H4SiO4) represents a great source of alkalinity, as it consumes two equivalents of carbonic acid to release bicarbonate and silicic acid, which has a high pKa (~9.5)
  • Indeed, engineers have proposed to spread kaolinite around coastal environments to mitigate ocean acidification (Kohler et al., 2010; Hartmann et al., 2013)