Skip to main content
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
MIT

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
PostSeptember 23, 2021

Companies hoping to grow carbon-sucking kelp may be rushing ahead of the science

A kelp forest

Numerous studies show the world may need to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere by midcentury to prevent dangerous levels of warming or bring the planet back from them. In addition, more and more corporations are scouring the market for carbon credits that allow them to offset their emissions and claim progress toward the goal of carbon neutrality.

All of that has spurred a growing number of companies, investors, and research groups to explore carbon removal approaches that range from planting trees to grinding up minerals to building giant C02-sucking factories.

Kelp has become an especially active area of inquiry and investment because there’s already an industry that cultivates it on a large scale—and the theoretical carbon removal potential is significant. An expert panel assembled by the Energy Futures Initiative estimated that kelp has the capacity to pull down about 1 billion to 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year.

But scientists are still grappling with fundamental questions about this approach. How much kelp can we grow? What will it take to ensure that most of the seaweed sinks to the bottom of the ocean? And how much of the carbon will stay there long enough to really help the climate?

Read the full article at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/19/1035889/kelp-carbon-removal-seaweed-sinking-climate-change/

Image Credits: Getty

by MIT Technology Review
Topics
Atmosphere
Carbon Capture
Oceans

Related Posts

PostOctober 17, 2025

School of Engineering welcomes new faculty in 2024-25

MIT News
Top row, left to right: Masha Folk, Sophia Henneberg, Omar Khattab, and Tania Lopez Silva. Bottom row, left to right: Ethan Peterson, Daniel Varon, Dean Price, and Raphael Zufferey.
PostOctober 16, 2025

Book reviews technologies aiming to remove carbon from the atmosphere

MIT Energy Initiative
“Carbon Removal,” by MIT Energy Initiative Senior Research Engineer Howard Herzog (pictured) and Professor Niall Mac Dowell of Imperial College London, explores the history and intricacies of removing carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere.
PostSeptember 17, 2025

Q&A: David Whelihan on the challenges of operating in the Arctic

MIT Lincoln Laboratory
David Whelihan has traveled to the Arctic over the past few years to test prototype low-cost sensor nodes designed to monitor loss in Arctic sea ice extent and thickness.
PostSeptember 12, 2025

Lidar helps gas industry find methane leaks and avoid costly losses

MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Methane plumes, as detected by Gas Mapping Lidar, overlay imagery of a gas production site.

MIT Climate News in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
MIT Climate Project
MIT
Communicator Award Winner
Communicator Award Winner