Water & Wastewater Asia March/April 2024

NEWS
PUB to build world’s largest ocean-based CO2 removal
demonstration plant in Tuas, Singapore
Singapore’s National Water Agency
PUB is collaborating with University of
California (UCLA) and a startup spun
out of research at UCLA — Equatic
— to build a US$20m full-scale
demonstration plant, following the
launch and operation of two pilots in
Los Angeles, US, and Singapore in
2023.
Over the next 18 months, the team of
researchers from the UCLA Institute
for Carbon Management (ICM) and
Equatic will set out to build the world’s
largest ocean-based carbon dioxide
removal (CDR) plant at PUB R&D
facility in Tuas, located in western
Singapore.
When fully completed in 2025,
the new plant — named Equatic-1
— will be equipped to remove 10
metric tonnes of CO2 per day from
seawater and the atmosphere —
100 times more than the existing
pilot. If successful, the technology
would allow for the greenhouse gas
(GHG) to be removed and stored,
while producing nearly 300kg of
carbon-negative hydrogen daily. At
full scale, Equatic-1 can remove as
much CO2 as what nearly 850 people
emit annually. When this facility has
fulfilled its technical demonstration
objectives, Equatic will scale and
commercialise the technology
globally and launch commercial plants
designed to remove nearly 110,000
metric tonnes of carbon dioxide
per year — equivalent to the annual
carbon emissions of more than 25,000
individuals.
The demonstration plant will be
co-funded by PUB, the National
Research Foundation (NRF),
Singapore, and UCLA ICM. Equatic’s
existing plant in Singapore, piloted
at 100kg of carbon dioxide removal
per day, has proven successful.
PUB has set a target to achieve
net zero emissions by 2045. This
collaboration with UCLA and Equatic
is part of Singapore’s broader efforts
to source for novel technologies,
such as carbon capture, utilisation
and storage (CCUS), which could
contribute to mitigating the impacts
of climate change.
“The pilot plant commissioned in
Singapore provided performance
data to substantiate our carbon
dioxide-removal efficiencies,
hydrogen-production rates and
energy requirements for the
process,” said Equatic co-founder
Dante Simonetti, an associate
professor of chemical and
biomolecular engineering at UCLA
Samueli and ICM’s associate director
for technology translation. “The
findings helped define the pathway
for the design and engineering
of Equatic-1 based on scaling
performance confirmed by the pilot
system.”
The Equatic process activates
and expands the ocean’s natural
ability to store CO2 by removing
dissolved CO2 while enhancing the
ocean’s capacity to absorb more
of the GHG. Utilising electrolysis,
an electrical current is passed
through seawater brought in from
the adjacent desalination plants
operated by PUB. The process
induces a series of chemical
reactions that breaks water into
its carbon-negative hydrogen and
oxygen constituents while securely
storing both dissolved, in sea water,
and atmospheric CO2 in the form of
solid calcium and magnesium-based
materials for at least 10,000 years.
Rendering of an
ocean-based CO2
removal plant
(Image: Charles Grace,
courtesy of Equatic)
10 Water & Wastewater Asia | March-April 2024