There’s nothing like a prize to get people going. Entrepreneur Richard Branson’s offer last week of $25 million for a cost-effective technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere already has its first claimant. Hotfooting it from Australia, Ian Jones of the Ocean Technology Group at the University of Sydney is headed for London to make his pitch.
Jones’s claim to the prize is his “ocean nourishment” project, which is a land-based fertiliser factory attached to a marine pipeline. It will make urea and feed it into the ocean to boost the growth of photosynthetic plankton. The growing plankton will absorb CO…
