UK firm looks to combat climate change by farming seaweed in the deep ocean

Seafields is operating in a proof-of-concept stage, working to show that their business model and the science that underpins it is indeed commercially viable.

Alongside selling the raw materials harvested from their sargassum crop, the firm will make its money by producing carbon credits — certificates sold to companies to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions.

First, however, the firm must show that they can domesticate and contain their seaweed. To this end, the firm have recently been testing designs for modular barriers — the fences of their paddocks, if you will — off the island of Saint Vincent, in the Caribbean.

And next Spring, Mr Auckland explained, Seafields will be undertaking environmental impact assessments off the coast of Barbados to show that their bales remain intact on the seafloor.

He added: “We will sink our first bales down to 4,000 metres [2.48 miles]… on these landers that allow us to monitor everything that’s going on.

“We need to be able to demonstrate their degradation rates and so on to be able to monetise our primary revenue source, which is selling carbon credits.”

With this complete, the firm is hoping to set up a pilot farm in the Caribbean sometime next year, and move out to the deep sea within three years. Because the farms are modular, it will be easy to scale them up, Mr Auckland explained.

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1695564/seafields-uk-climate-change-carbon-sequestration-seaweed-sargassum-deep-ocean