Ocean Carbon Capture Island CarbonIsland Deployed in Pacific: Annual CO2 Absorption Equivalent to Planting 5 Million Trees

Ocean Carbon Capture Island CarbonIsland Deployed in Pacific: Annual CO2 Absorption Equivalent to Planting 5 Million Trees

On April 8, 2029, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Australian carbon capture startup OceanClean jointly announced that the first commercial ocean carbon capture floating island, CarbonIsland-1, has officially entered operation in the South Pacific. This 200-meter-diameter hexagonal island uses electrochemical methods to extract dissolved CO2 from seawater, with an annual capture capacity of 500,000 tons—equivalent to the carbon absorption of 5 million mature trees.

Ocean CO2 concentration is 150 times that of the atmosphere, making extraction from seawater an order of magnitude more efficient than direct air capture. CarbonIsland uses renewable-energy-powered electrolyzers to acidify seawater and release dissolved CO2 gas, then injects compressed CO2 via pipeline into subsea geological formations for permanent storage.

Total project investment is $820 million, with 40% from Japan's Green Innovation Fund. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Carbon Neutral Technology Division head Tanaka Masayuki stated: "CarbonIsland proves that ocean carbon capture is commercially viable. Our goal is to deploy 50 such islands by 2035, with total annual capture of 25 million tons."

However, environmental organizations have expressed concerns about ecological impacts. WWF's oceans program director Dr. Jennifer Lee noted: "Large-scale seawater extraction and chemical alteration could impact marine ecosystems in ways we don't fully understand. We need longer-term ecological monitoring before scaling up."

CarbonIsland-1's operators state that discharge water is neutralized to within 0.1 pH of surrounding seawater. Twelve ecological monitoring stations within 500 meters of the island track marine life changes in real time.