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Marine carbon dioxide removal provider Ebb Carbon announced a new offtake agreement with Google (GOOGL), targeting the removal of 3,500 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere to be generated from the application of Ebb’s electromechanical water technology solution at a desalination project in Saudi Arabia.

Founded in 2021 by former Tesla, SolarCity, and Google X executives, Ebb Carbon provides a solution aimed at enhancing the natural ability of the ocean to store CO2, while improving ocean health by reducing ocean acidification. The company’s utilizes an Electrochemical Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) approach to ocean-based carbon removal that accelerates the natural ocean alkalinization process, by separating seawater into acidic and alkaline streams, with the alkaline stream returned to the ocean, where it mimics natural alkalization, converting CO2 in seawater into bicarbonate ions and enabling the ocean to absorb additional CO2 from the atmosphere. By countering rising ocean acidification resulting from climate change, the solution can also help to addresses threat to marine life and coastal ecosystems.

The new agreement with Google follows the launch by Ebb of a new partnership with the Saudi Water Authority (SWA), the world’s largest desalination owner and operator. Under the new partnership, Ebb’s modular electrochemical system will plug directly into SWA’s existing operations, intercepting waste brine that would otherwise be headed back to the ocean, and instead converting it into multiple value streams, including a less salty solution that can be returned to the desalination facility to generate additional freshwater, and chemical co-products, as well as an alkaline solution that can be returned to the ocean to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere.

According to Ebb, deploying its solution across SWA’s entire existing assets could remove up to 85 megatonnes of CO2 annually, while providing additional value to the desalination provider including increased water output and industrial chemicals, and helping Ebb to save costs through access to existing water processing infrastructure.

Ben Tarbell, CEO of Ebb, said:

“The natural systems in the ocean represent the most powerful and rapidly scalable path to meaningful carbon removal. By integrating our technology with desalination facilities, we’re transforming what has historically been a waste stream into a climate solution. Perhaps most importantly, Ebb’s technology can support our desalination partners’ core business through additional freshwater recovery, energy savings, and valuable chemical co-products.”

The new offtake order from Google will be fulfilled from Ebb’s operations with SWA. In addition to the new agreement, Ebb announced that it is also working with Google’s breakthrough technologies initiative, X The Moonshot Factory, to explore the use of the acid coproduct of Ebb’s ocean alkalinity enhancement process through the application to a technology developed by X utilizing this type of acid to recycle concrete waste, advancing the circular economy in construction materials.

Antonio Papania-Davis, Project Lead, X the Moonshot Factory, said:

“Combining Ebb’s electrochemical approach to ocean alkalinity enhancement with X’s acid utilization technology has the rare potential for cost-negative carbon sequestration. It’s rare for waste streams to become revenue streams and we hope our research provides the industry with a blueprint for harvesting this untapped value.”

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