Stefano Caserini and Mario Grosso, in collaboration with scientists from the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC), launched the Desarc Maresanus project. The research is supported by the scientific and technical contribution of Giovanni Cappello and the financial support of Amundi, and has the objective to study the technical -scientific aspects for the removal of atmospheric CO₂ through increased alkalinity of the sea. A solution already proposed in the scientific literature, which has the sea as its protagonist. Research on the removal of atmospheric CO₂ and the storage of CO₂ in the form of calcium bicarbonates is also continuing, with a collaboration between the Politecnico di Milano and the European Lime Association (EULA).
The research group produces the first scientific articles on the process for generating calcium bicarbonates by combining them with CO₂, calcium carbonates and calcium hydroxide. It is the intuition behind the birth of Limenet technology.
First experiments are carried out in a small craft laboratory and at the Giulio Natta Chemistry Department of the Politecnico di Milano. We demonstrate that we can effectively remove CO₂ through calcium bicarbonates. From theory to practice. From research to enterprise.
Thanks to the collaboration with Hyrogas, a Latvian engineering company, a pilot plant is built in La Spezia: the results confirm the possibility of storing CO₂ in seawater in the form of calcium bicarbonates.
Design of the first production plant with an operational storage capacity of hundreds of tons of CO₂/year begins. The aspects related to monitoring-reporting-verification (MRV) of storage are examined, taking as a reference the ISO 14062-2 standards for the issuance of a certificate by a third party. The possibility of using blockchain technology for this purpose is also explored.