At first glance, and to a layman, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and putting it into the sea seems a bit like hiding the dust under a carpet. However, there are several projects for the storage of CO2 at sea, such as the "Porthos" project which plans to inject 2.5 million of carbon dioxide per year under the North Sea seabed ( of 8 November 2023). Paradoxically, projects are also underway for extract CO2 from the sea, such as that carried out by the California-based Captura aimed at removing carbon dioxide from upper layers of the oceans by improving the capacity of the ocean waters to extract more carbon from the air. Per profane, or rather ignorant, these seem to be three-card games to divert from the real problem: that of reducing the emissions of carbon produced by humans. But, evidently, the real answer problem is to address it both at the root and by reducing its effects on the climate.

Among the projects that plan to store CO2 at sea is the one designed and built in the port of Augusta by the startup Italian Limenet, which in 2023 had already experimented in La Spezia a pilot project with CO2 sequestration. In the Sicilian port The company has created a system capable of removing annually from the air 800 tons of carbon dioxide and stored at sea through a chemical process, in the form of calcium bicarbonates. Stefano Cappello, CEO and founder of Limenet, explained that Augusta's is the the startup's first industrial plant built after years of research and experiments and - he added - "marks a step significant in the development of our technology and growth of the company. In the last year - he announced Cappello - we sold the first CO2 credits equivalent to 1,000 tonnes of negative emissions thanks to the agreement with KlimaDAO and concluded an acceleration course at Faros, accelerator of the blue economy of the CDP Venture Capital network. Thanks to the collaboration with the Port System Authority of the Eastern Sicilian Sea and with the Municipality of Augusta, we have launched the first carbon removal project in Italy in 2014 sea through calcium bicarbonates".

Highlighting the significant beneficial effects of the initiative to the marine ecosystem, the president of the Sicilian Port Authority, Francesco Di Sarcina - underlined that "the role of our institution is also that of protecting the sea, as well as the territory. We must consider the sea - he pointed out - as the center of life of our economy and our trade, therefore it is it is necessary to protect it. For these reasons, we have accepted, with attention and strong interest, the Limenet initiative that gives the port of Augusta a world record in the air-sea passage of carbon dioxide and can be a stimulus for other Italian port facilities, and beyond, in order to adopt Powerful and effective tools in protecting the environment marino".