A 30 ha carbon-capturing plant is being set up in Morocco, in the Sahara desert.

The commercial demonstration facility will use natural seaweed to sequester CO₂, with the goal of reducing the cost of carbon capture to less than US$50 per ton.

Morocco World News reports that the project will be implemented by UK start-up Brilliant Planet, which recently closed a second round of fundraising with US$12 million to construct the plant.

The carbon-capturing process will involve replicating the growth conditions of a type of seaweed, producing large quantities of micro-algae in open-air ponds on coastal desert land. It will not require any freshwater.

Raffael Jovine, chief scientist and co-founder of the start-up, says the facility will be powered by solar energy. ‘Per unit area, this approach sequesters up to 30 times more carbon per year than rainforests, while it also de-acidifies the local coastal seawater back to pre-industrial levels.’

26 April 2022
Image: Brilliant Planet