You can’t see olivine sand from the shore in Duck, North Carolina. The monitoring devices keeping watch over the test site aren’t visible either. But that’s the point.
Because about 1,500 feet offshore, in about 25 feet of water, roughly 6,500 cubic yards (about twice the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool) of olivine sand mined in Norway sits on the bottom.
It’s part of Coastal Carbon Capture, a project run by a start-up called Vesta. The company believes that olivine sand could pull massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere. And that could reduce the dangers posed by climate change.
Even though the olivine sand now sitting off North Carolina’s coast came all the way from Denmark, the mineral from which it’s made is found all over, including in western North Carolina. It’s actually one of the most common minerals on Earth.
And because olivine is so common, it can be safely used for research in the ocean. Scientists are studying its impact on the ocean ecosystem and how much carbon it can remove in areas where it isn’t naturally found.
Vesta’s goal is to incorporate olivine into beach nourishment projects, which help replenish eroding sand along shorelines. That would lessen the amount of sand needed to be pumped ashore, making nourishment projects cheaper. It would also help reduce carbon pollution.
What’s so special about olivine? It’s all about chemistry.
Because it’s an alkaline material, olivine reacts with carbonic acid (which contains carbon dioxide) as it sits on the bottom just offshore. The acid is converted to bicarbonate, which provides long-term carbon storage.
Vesta needed federal and state approval to do the test. The company is also working with UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington and the Coastal Studies Institute at East Carolina University’s Outer Banks Campus on the project.
The mineral olivine soaks up CO2. Can we harness its power to achieve net-zero emissions?