As climate heats up, a Nova Scotia startup is harnessing the ocean as a climate solution

The Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews, N.B., is home to pHathom’s pilot facility. The startup is one of several Nova Scotia companies investigating ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using the ocean. (CBC - image credit) A Nova Scotia startup is testing a method to capture and store more carbon in the ocean, using a new pilot facility to prove the concept.

The ocean is already a major storehouse for excess carbon dioxide. Since the 1980s, it has absorbed about 30 per cent of all human-caused carbon emissions.

The company pHathom is attempting to coax even more emissions out of the atmosphere by capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into a form that can be safely stored in the ocean for millennia.

It will test its approach at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, a non-profit research and educational facility in St. Andrews, N.B.