Undergraduate Research Assistant: Measuring the physical properties of alkaline materials for ocean alkalinity enhancement
About the project
Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is a promising carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approach for mitigating climate change, alongside aggressive decarbonization across industries. At the Climate System Engineering initiative (CSEi), we work on practical questions surrounding OAE: how efficient the approach can really be, and how the process should be designed so that alkaline material can be produced with minimal environmental impact, maximum CDR potential, and at a manageable cost.
For OAE to work, alkalinity must be released into surface seawater, where the water is in contact with atmospheric CO₂. As the added alkalinity shifts the carbonate chemistry of the seawater, it drives increased uptake of CO₂ and its longer-term storage as dissolved carbon ions. With this in mind, we are investigating the alkalinity-release potential of alkaline minerals – such as lime products (widely used in industries like construction), basalt, and mining wastes – in the context of open-ocean CDR.
To do this, we measure how fast mineral particles sink and compare that with how fast they dissolve in the lab. We use an optical instrument, the RTSSV, which measures the sinking velocity and size of solid particles.
The role
We are looking for an undergraduate student to:
- Run experiments with the RTSSV (with supervision at first, and increasingly independently)
- Help analyze the resulting data
- Compare the results with complementary dissolution experiments to assess the CDR potential of different alkaline materials
What we’re looking for:
- Interest in climate, oceans or geochemistry (prior lab experience welcome)
- Careful, reliable attention to experimental detail