Project Vesta

Vesta is a public benefit corporation focused on ocean-based carbon dioxide removal. It researches and performs accelerated weathering of the mineral olivine as a coastal protection strategy which helps the ocean naturally remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Vesta grinds up naturally abundant olivine into sand and places it on the seashore to help replenish beaches and reverse coastal erosion. The sand then dissolves, aided by the movement of the waves, to increase the alkalinity of the ocean which reverses the harmful effects of climate change-driven ocean acidification and helps the ocean perform its natural process of carbon sequestration permanently.

Vesta's technology plans and measures the process, mapping out how fine to grind the sand, how much sand to use, where exactly to place it, and then measuring the increase in impact on ocean alkalinity over time. It currently has a pilot project operating in Southampton, New York and an upcoming project planned in Duck, North Carolina.

In the long term, Vesta's approach could cost as little as $21 and require 40 kilowatt-hours of energy to remove a ton of CO2. Vesta calculates that spreading olivine in 0.25% of the world's shelf seas could be enough to remove 1 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Provided by Wikipedia