Mixing lime mined from the Nullarbor could greatly
reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
Image: Istockphoto

Millions of tonnes of limestone buried below the Nullarbor Plain could reverse climate change and return the Earth's atmosphere to what it was before the Industrial Revolution.

A team of scientists led by London-based chemical engineer Tim Kruger say the Nullarbor's lime resources could be mixed with seawater to increase the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the world's oceans. 

"This has the effect of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," Mr Kruger says.

"It also helps to prevent ocean acidification, another problem caused by the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."

The oceans are already the world’s largest carbon sink, absorbing two billion tonnes of carbon every year. Increasing absorption ability by just a few percent could dramatically increase CO2 uptake from the atmosphere.

This would be the largest mining, engineering and processing project the world has ever seen, and Shell Oil is funding an investigation into its economic feasibility, projected to cost trillions of dollars.

Following the release of the concept in London, the global scientific community is being asked for input, for example to answer what might happen to sea life if the oceans are remixed with large quantities of lime. In theory, fish may be able to cope if the process was gradual, but marine scientists are being asked to investigate.

The www.cquestrate.com website is being established to allow debate and discussion of the plan.

Mr Kruger says the idea of changing the chemical mix of the world's oceans to help absorb more C02 is not new, first raised a decade ago but dismissed as ‘unworkable’ due to the expense and amount of CO2 produced by the extraction of lime from limestone.

Although processing does produce huge amounts of C02, once mixed with seawater the sea should absorb almost twice carbon dioxide.   
  
The Nullarbor contains the world’s largest deposits of limestone, covering an area of 200,000 sq km and around five percent of its reserves would be enough to return the world's C02 levels to pre-industrial times.