Earth’s oceans have absorbed nearly a third of human-produced carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution, but this vital service comes at a cost: seawater acidity has risen 30%, threatening marine ecosystems and global food chains. Now, an Italian startup’s radical approach could help reverse this trend by supercharging one of nature’s oldest climate solutions.
Limenet, operating from Sicily’s heavily industrialized coastline, has developed a reactor that accelerates limestone-based carbon capture from millennia to minutes. The process mimics Earth’s geological carbon cycle – where atmospheric CO2 dissolves in rainwater as carbonic acid and slowly breaks down rocks – but achieves in four minutes what normally takes 4,000 years.
‘Our technology produces calcium-rich seawater that simultaneously captures CO2 and counteracts ocean acidification,’ explains founder Stefano Capello. While their pilot plant currently removes 800 tons of CO2 annually, scaling up global limestone production could theoretically enable billions of tons in annual carbon capture.
With marine biodiversity declining and climate targets slipping out of reach, Limenet’s modular reactors – set for deployment in 2026 – offer a rare dual solution. As Capello notes: ‘We’re not just removing emissions, we’re giving the ocean its antacid.’
