Vycarb aims to remove carbon from the East River while making it more habitable to life

It’s no secret that the East River is heavily polluted. Sewage runoff is dumped into the strait approximately 70 times per year, which releases bacteria and makes the East River a body of water New Yorkers probably don’t want to swim in.

However, the East River’s carbon-intensive waters are perfect for carbon capture. Vycarb, a startup that accelerates the water’s natural ability to sequester carbon dioxide and measures the carbon cycle, has taken advantage of the strait’s environment. The company was founded in 2022 by climate scientist and chemist Garrett Boudinot, whose earlier research focused on measuring carbon removal.

The East River pilot project operates out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and is Vycarb’s third pilot. The startup has also tested out its method off Governor’s Island and East Hampton, New York, and its mechanics are growing with each iteration: Vycarb’s Governor’s Island equipment is a few feet tall, while its current iteration is a shipping container topped with solar panels that power its operations.

The Vycarb method: While the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide, coastal waters such as the East River actually emit carbon, too. That’s because some of the organic matter that enters the water from sewage and other runoff becomes carbon dioxide. Thus, the water ends up having more carbon dioxide in it than the surrounding atmosphere, so it releases carbon into the air to reach an equilibrium. Vycarb “targets” the excess carbon in the water and converts it into HCO3, a stable molecule that won’t degrade in water for 10,000 years at minimum.

That transformation happens inside Vycarb’s reactor, a long black tube that sits in the water of the East River and connects to the shipping container. Water and carbon enter the reactor, are treated with a mineral and dissolved, and then exit the reactor as HCO3.

“We can turn that greenhouse gas CO2 that’s dissolved in water into a non-greenhouse gas molecule,” Boudinot told Tech Brew, “prevent that from outgassing, and thus remove CO2 from the atmosphere.”

Vycarb’s “sensing technology” also measures how much carbon the reactor is able to remove from the air by quantifying how many CO2, HCO3, and carbonate molecules go into the reactor and how many exit it. The sensing technology also ensures that the proper mix of “alkalinity is added to neutralize excess CO2,” without disturbing the other substances.

Aiding marine wildlife: And there’s another benefit to Vycarb’s process besides removing carbon from the atmosphere. East River’s high concentrations of carbonic acid make the water very acidic. So when the reactor turns carbon molecules into non-greenhouse gas molecules through its carbon sequestration process, it also deacidifies the water, which helps marine wildlife like fish and shellfish thrive.

“A lot of organisms that calcify, whether for bones or for shells or anything like that, need the water to be of a higher pH,” or less acidic, Boudinot said. “Ocean acidification is understood as one of the biggest negative ocean impacts from climate change.”

Before water goes through Vycarb’s reactor, its pH ranges from 7.4 to 7.7; after, it’s between 8.0 and 8.1. Because pH is measured on a logarithmic scale, that change in pH makes a big difference. Vycarb said it’s already deacidified 15+ million liters of water since starting its pilot at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in November.

What’s next: Vycarb told Tech Brew its plan is to continue “scaling up.” The startup has received regulatory permission to sequester carbon in the East River “at 100 tons per year,” meaning it’s got ample room to grow.