Direct deep-sea carbon dioxide injection

Direct deep-sea carbon dioxide injection was a (now abandoned) technology proposal with the aim to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by direct injection into the deep ocean to store it there for centuries. At the ocean bottom, the pressures would be great enough for CO2 to be in its liquid phase. The idea behind ocean injection was to have stable, stationary pools of CO2 at the ocean floor. The ocean could potentially hold over a thousand billion tons of CO2. However, the interest in this avenue of carbon storage has much reduced since about 2001 because of concerns about the unknown impacts on marine life, high costs and concerns about its stability or permanence.

This article is about an abandoned idea to store carbon in the ocean. For ongoing storage by ocean organisms, see Blue carbon. For unwanted accumulation of carbon dioxide in the ocean and its effects, see Ocean acidification. For current work on permanently storing carbon, see Carbon sequestration.

A special IPCC report in 2005 summarized the research status at that time. Back then, it was found that "Deep ocean storage could help reduce the impact of CO2 emissions on surface ocean biology but at the expense of effects on deep-ocean biology.": 279  Furthermore, it was regarded as doubtful whether the public would accept this technology as part of a climate change mitigation strategy.: 279 

Earlier publications, such as the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 also referred to this technology as ocean storage.: 287  However nowadays that term is used more widely as part of carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration in the ocean. For example, the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report in 2014 no longer mentioned the term "ocean storage" in its report on climate change mitigation methods. The most recent IPCC Sixth Assessment Report in 2022 also no longer includes any mention of "ocean storage" in its "Carbon Dioxide Removal taxonomy".: 12–37  Instead there is now more focus on blue carbon management in coastal zones.

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