Ocean Enhancement

PRONOE

Ocean Enhancement

Restoring the ocean's natural ability to permanently remove CO2 - in a sustainable, scalable and asset-light manner.

Paris, France

FRA

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

Climate action has been delayed so much that not only do we need to reduce emissions drastically, but also restore ecosystems and actively remove CO2 from the air to respect the Paris Agreement +2 °C global warming limit and NetZero commitments. An estimated 5-16 GtCO2 (billions of metric tons) must be removed each year starting in 2050. Our current technological CDR capacity is less than 0.001 GtCO2 per year. The lack of affordable, available, and reliable high-quality CO2 removal capacity at scale could cost billions to companies and countries in their NetZero journey or hinder it altogether. The Ocean holds more than 50 times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and surface waters permanently remove almost 30% of CO2 emissions each year, making it the most significant carbon reservoir and carbon sink. Yet, as CO2 dissolves in seawater, it causes ocean acidification. This phenomenon dissolves corals and other calcifying organisms, disrupting marine ecosystems, coastal communities' livelihoods, and ocean-based human activities, directly impacting the food supply of 0.5 billion people. Ocean acidification causes the ocean’s capacity for further CO2 removal to decrease over time.

​PRONœ develops industrial systems that turn industrial return flows into a safe alkaline flow, which is precisely and continuously monitored. The safe alkaline effluent locally reverses the acidification of surface waters, with associated environmental co-benefits, and restores their natural ability to capture and permanently store CO2 from the air. Our automated systems seamlessly integrate downstream of coastal industries, thus leveraging legacy infrastructures and available water flows. This makes our approach asset-light compared to other CO2 removalCDR approaches, while operating within current regulations. Based on modular electro-membrane technology, our systems are extremely compact and easy to scale up. Automated systems and no need for downstream CO2 logistics allow for fully decentralized CO2 removal activities Our robust process accommodates varying mineral and water feedstocks to best leverage local resources. This operational flexibility enables us to co-locate with almost any industrial site with a return flow to the sea. Be it an effluent, in the case of wastewater treatment plants or desalination plants, or cooling flows, in the case of power plants, data centers, etc. Finally, these semi-batch systems require only electricity and operate at ambient pressure and temperature with low power consumption at scale, and accommodate load-variable, renewable electricity.

PRONOE focuses on ocean CDR. Thus, we have a deep connection with coastal communities. We use existing return flows (effluents) coming from coastal industries; these flows are both a way to produce our alkalinity and a medium to introduce alkalinity into the ocean. Effluent disposal impacts the economic activities of coastal communities (e.g., fishing industry and tourism). In the case of desalination plants (as an example of coastal industry relevant for PRONOE), coastal communities rely on them for their water requirements, particularly the irrigation of the agricultural sector (source of revenue and food). We learned from local governments and researchers that coastal areas lack somehow related resources, what they call water-food-energy-climate nexus. This is particularly the case of SIDS (Small Island Developing States) that are underserved in terms of economic activity, and global investments, while being 'Big Ocean Nations', as in enjoying comparatively large ocean economic zones, and cultural and economic ties to the ocean. Even in countries such as France, the shellfish farming industry ($500m, 15.000 people directly employed) is threatened by rising acidification levels, as was the case of the US shellfish industry that has been severely impacted since 2015.