A University of Texas at Arlington researcher is working to create a process that uses seawater to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Erika La Plante, assistant professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, received a $125,000 subgrant from the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) as part of a larger Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy grant for the work.

The UCLA team developed a continuous electrolytic pH pump that uses high-alkalinity seawater with high concentrations of carbon dioxide and cations to produce minerals that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. La Plante and her postdoctoral researcher, Muhammad Kashif Majeed, will develop electrode materials for the pump to make the removal process more efficient.

La Plante previously was a postdoctoral researcher and project scientist at UCLA and part of the larger team that began the work. She authored a paper introducing the results of their research.

Read more at: University of Texas at Arlington

Erika LaPlante (Photo Credit: UT Arlington)