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Ocean de-oxygenation.
Posted by Philip Kithil | New Mexico, United States
The oceans provide half the oxygen we breathe but ocean oxygen content has been declining for decades due to warming caused by elevated atmospheric CO2 from fossil fuel emissions. A recent scientific study documenting this condition is "Declining oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters", Denise Breitburg et. al., Science 05 Jan 2018: Vol. 359, Issue 6371, eaam7240 DOI: 10.1126/science.aam7240).
Regretfully, fossil fuels remain the global economy's primary energy source and continue to increase despite the good intentions expressed in the Paris Accord. The recent IPCC report outlines the dire future we face in view of failure to rein in CO2 emissions.
A climate emergency exists. Therefore, new technologies which mimic natural processes are needed to help re-oxygenate the oceans and counteract the warming, without harming natural ocean processes.
Our Oxygenator (tm) is a wave-driven upwelling/downwelling device which drifts in the mid-ocean gyres to help resuscitate the oceans. Extending from just below the surface to several hundred meters deep, the upwelling function powered entirely by ocean waves, delivers nutrients from below to above the thermocline to enable primary production (phytoplankton). The downwelling function delivers near-surface water parcels below the thermocline to help redistribute heat, re-oxygenate the mid-ocean, and amplify net export (sequestration) of carbon.
We've been developing and conducting ocean tests of our upwelling and downwelling devices since 2005 - with over 100 days of ocean tests in Texas, Oregon, California, Bermuda, Hawaii, Oregon, Peru, and Newfoundland Canada; over six weeks of wave tank tests at Texas A&M and the Plymouth University (UK) COAST facility; and we've received eight modeling grants from Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, as well as cash and inkind support from the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, and Technology Strategy Board (UK). The Oxygenator will undergo its 3rd ocean test on December 1 off Morro Bay, CA, upwelling water from 100m and downwelling to 200m (these depths being representative of full-scale).
We invite the Benioff Ocean Initiative and UCSB to partner with our ocean team to characterize the Oxygenator favorable (numerous) and unfavorable (few, we think) impacts on the ocean ecosystem, by providing support for additional modeling as well as a suite of short, medium and long-term ocean tests.
About us: we are an entrepreneur-led "C" corporation supported by angel investors. We do design engineering and production management, and conduct ocean testing, using both in-house resources and several nimble subcontractors. Read more at www.ocean-based.com and at the parent company website, www.atmocean.com.
