Supplying oceans with oxygen: Startups are leading the way in the Baltic Sea

European scientists have teamed up with two startups in a groundbreaking experiment to tackle one of the biggest problems facing marine life – the lack of oxygen in the ocean, which is leading to the disappearance of fish and marine biodiversity.

Ocean deoxygenation is one of the topics on the agenda of the UN COP biodiversity summit, which opens on October 21 in Colombia.

Researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden, French industrial company Lhyfe and Finnish startup Flexens are working on a pilot experiment to re-oxygenate the Baltic Sea by producing hydrogen at sea.

The BOxHy project seeks a total solution to the suffocation threat that threatens a sea bordering nine northern European countries.

Oxygen dissolved in the oceans is crucial to sustaining marine life because without it, underwater organisms have no chance of survival, scientists say.

“But its concentrations have been decreasing for more than 50 years,” said Christophe Rabouille, a scientist at the French research center CNRS.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, oxygen loss has two main causes.

One of these is the warming of the oceans due to climate change – warmer oceans contain less oxygen, while organisms in hotter waters require more oxygen.

The other is eutrophication, the process by which fertilizer runoff, sewage, animal waste, aquaculture, and the deposition of nitrogen from burning fossil fuels create excessive algal blooms.

When these algae decompose, large amounts of CO2 are produced, which removes oxygen from the water.

– “Ecological desert” –

The central Baltic Sea, a semi-enclosed sea bordered by agricultural and industrialized countries, “is one of the largest dead places in the world… basically an ecological desert,” Alf Norkko of the University of Helsinki told AFP.

The goal of BOxHy, supported by the United Nations as part of a 10-year program on sustainable marine development, is to study the feasibility of deep gaseous oxygen injection, a technique used in certain freshwater lakes in North America becomes.

“Restoring oxygen conditions in deep waters through long-term additions would have many positive effects on the Baltic Sea ecosystem,” such as expanding habitat for cod farming, said Jakob Walve of Stockholm University and involved in the project.

– The long game –

Flexens, the Finnish startup involved in the project, has identified three possible zones for oxygen reinjection, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Oxygen must be clean and produced on site.

This is where the French startup Lhyfe comes into play, which specializes in separating hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water using electric current.

The company has developed a unique offshore hydrogen production facility using desalinated seawater in a year-long experiment in the Le Croisic region of western France.

So far, the oxygen produced by Lhyfe has been released into the atmosphere. But in the Baltic Sea it would be splashed into the water.

The project is still in the planning phase – decisions need to be made about how the injection should be done, how much and at what speed, and how the subsequent impact on fauna and flora should be measured.

The second phase of BOxHy involves the implementation of a pilot project that is expected to last five to six years and start in 2025, according to Szilvia Haide of Flexens, who is coordinating it.

The aim of the pilot project is to develop the oxygen injection method and examine the effects on the environment and biodiversity.

According to calculations by Matthieu Guesne, CEO of Lhyfe, around 30 offshore platforms in the Baltic Sea would be needed to fully supply it with oxygen.

“It’s not a miracle solution, it’s a very long-term project,” Guesne told AFP, estimating it would take 20 to 30 years.

It will also depend on the agricultural industry and its use of fertilizers.

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