Scalable Carbon Sequestration Inspired by the Common Stony Coral

Innovation: Industry

Blue Planet

Image: Ekamelev / Pixabay / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Chemically Break Down Organic Compounds

The vast majority of biochemical assembly and breakdown processes–even by the most complex organisms–occur within cells. In fact, cells are able to perform hundreds, even thousands of chemical transformations at the same time under life-friendly conditions (ambient temperature and pressure in an aqueous environment). Part of the reason that decomposition reactions (chemical breakdown) can occur under such mild conditions is because most often, they occur in a stepwise, enzyme-mediated fashion, sipping or releasing small amounts of energy at each step. For example, the breakdown of glucose to pyruvate–and the release of energy–occurs in the 10-step enzyme catalyzed process of glycolysis.

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Physically Assemble Structure

Living systems use physical materials to create structures to serve as protection, insulation, and other purposes. These structures can be internal (within or attached to the system itself), such as cell membranes, shells, and fur. They can also be external (detached), such as nests, burrows, cocoons, or webs. Because physical materials are limited and the energy required to gather and create new structures is costly, living systems must use both conservatively. Therefore, they optimize the structures’ size, weight, and density. For example, weaver birds use two types of vegetation to create their nests: strong, a few stiff fibers and numerous thin fibers. Combined, they make a strong, yet flexible, nest. An example of an internal structure is a bird’s bone. The bone is comprised of a mineral matrix assembled to create strong cross-supports and a tubular outer surface filled with air to minimize weight.

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Store Chemical Entities

Chemical entities include elements such as carbon and metals, and compounds such as nutrients and proteins. Living systems must often store chemical entities–for example, for food or protection–temporarily or for long periods; the latter is synonymous with sequestration. Because chemical entities can react with other chemicals, living systems must store these entities so that they are stable and out of the way (for long-term storage) or readily available when needed (for temporary storage). An example of temporary storage is found in crustaceans such as crabs, which must shed their external skeletons as they grow. But first, a crab must absorb as much calcium carbonate from its shell as possible, storing the compound in its blood until the crab can use it to grow a new exoskeleton.

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Patents

US20140322803A1
7.3 MB PDF

Concrete Without Quarries

In this lab students explore how sea creatures creates calcium carbonate, a compound needed to manufacture cement, at ambient temperatures and using abundant, readily available raw materials.

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Carbon Capture from Blue Planet uses the carbon mineralization process to produce carbon neutral coarse and fine aggregate made from sequestered CO2.

Benefits

Sustainable
Reduced CO2 pollution

Applications

Construction
Infrastructure

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption

The Challenge

Greenhouse gases are at the highest levels ever recorded. These gases absorb solar energy and keep heat close to the Earth, known as the greenhouse effect, causing global warming. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas and is emitted from burning materials like fossil fuels.

Innovation Details

Sequestered carbon dioxide is used as a raw material for making carbonate rocks, similar to the process that coral reefs use to make their hard exteriors. It works by taking CO2 from flue gas and converting it to carbonate rocks. The carbonate rocks are used in place of natural limestone rock mined from quarries, which is the principal component of concrete. This differentiates Blue Planet from most CO2 capture methods because the captured CO2 does not require a purification step, which is an energy and capital intensive process. As a result, Blue Planet’s capture method is extremely efficient, and results in a lower cost than traditional methods of CO2 capture.

Diagram of carbon capture process. Photo: Blue Planet.

Biological Model

Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to sea anemones and jellyfish. At their base is a hard, protective limestone skeleton called a calicle, which forms the structure of coral reefs. Carbon dioxide created from cellular metabolism in the coral polyp diffuses into a closed space directly above the existing coral skeleton. This CO2 is transformed into a building material for its exoskeleton.

See Related Strategy

black, white and blue photograph of coral underwater

Biological Strategy

How Proteins Help Corals Build Rock-Hard Reefs

Corals lay down proteins in an organized way to create a scaffold for minerals that produce rock-hard reefs

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