Frontier Airlines Buys $31M in Antacids for Ocean Health

Frontier's Significant Investment in Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement

Frontier, a carbon removal initiative established by prominent companies including Google, Stripe, and Shopify, has announced a substantial $31.3 million agreement.

This investment will facilitate the purchase of 115,211 metric tons of carbon removal credits from Planetary, a geoengineering startup.

A Shift Towards Ocean-Based Carbon Removal

Previous Frontier agreements have largely focused on carbon removal technologies such as direct air capture, enhanced weathering, and bioenergy with carbon capture.

However, this new partnership with Planetary marks the organization’s inaugural venture into enhancing ocean alkalinity as a carbon removal strategy.

Cost and Potential of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement

The current deal establishes a price of $270 per metric ton of carbon removed.

Planetary anticipates reducing this cost to under $100 per metric ton in the future.

At peak capacity, ocean alkalinity enhancement has the potential to remove over 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually.

The Ocean's Role and the Impact of Acidification

For many years, the world’s oceans have played a crucial role in mitigating climate change by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

While this absorption has slowed global warming, it poses a threat to marine life, particularly organisms like coral and shellfish that rely on alkaline waters for shell and skeleton development.

Understanding Ocean pH Levels

The oceans are naturally alkaline, historically maintaining a pH of 8.2.

Since the onset of the industrial revolution, this level has decreased to 8.1.

Although seemingly small, this change represents a 30% increase in ocean acidity due to the logarithmic nature of the pH scale, resulting from the reaction of carbon dioxide with water to form carbonic acid.

Planetary's Approach to Alkalinity Enhancement

Planetary utilizes magnesium hydroxide – a common ingredient in antacids – to increase ocean alkalinity.

This substance is added at wastewater treatment facilities and power plants, leveraging existing discharge points to minimize coastal disruption and control costs.

Current Project Locations

The startup is currently operating two projects, strategically located in Nova Scotia and Virginia.

Note: Frontier has updated the deal size figures following the initial publication of this article. The original values reported were $31.2 million and 115,208 metric tons.