Brilliant Planet

Brilliant Planet uses Marine algae to sequester the CO2. Algae are highly efficient at photosynthesis; the process that biological organisms use to absorb and convert CO2 into biomass. Beneficial coastal algae blooms are responsible for 20% of the global carbon cycle (more than all forests combined) and 10-50x more efficient at CO2 fixation than terrestrial plants per unit area. This makes them an inherently effective option for CO2 sequestration. Brilliant Planet's approach combines the affordability of nature-based systems with the durability and measurability of engineered systems. . An algal starter monoculture is grown in the lab. After 10 days in the lab, the blooming algae are transferred into a greenhouse. After the greenhouse they move the organisms into outdoor ponds, where they spend the remaining five days growing rapidly in the large outdoor production ponds. The algae are filtered out of the final pond by passing the water through screens. These retain a concentrated biomass 'slurry' whilst allowing filtered seawater to pass through. The filtered water that returns to the shallow ocean surface is de-acidified and promotes biodiversity restoration. Then pump the biomass slurry produced at harvest up a drying tower, which sprays the mixture into the hot, dry desert air. The particles rapidly dry as they float back to the ground and take the form of a dry, salty powder. The dried algae is collected, weighed, and put into specially lined landfill sites located above future sea level projections. It remains highly stable over time because it has a high salt content and other physical properties that prevent degradation. The buried composite is dry and has low water activity, which inhibits degradation. It is also extremely salty and naturally acidic. Long-term storage has been shown by naturally preserved biomass that has remained stable for thousands of years under similar conditions. This means it can be permanently stored in simple desert landfills.