OX2 and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) will examine how OX2’s offshore energy parks can oxygenate the Baltic Sea.
The Swedish institute has been approved a research grant from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management to, together with OX2, research if artificial oxygenation can contribute to restore parts of the Baltic Sea that are deprived of oxygen today.
The oxygen will be a byproduct from the hydrogen production by two offshore energy parks OX2 plans, Neptunus outside Blekinge in the south of Sweden and Pleione east of the island of Gotland.
Eutrophication causes oxygen deficiency in large areas of the Baltic Sea. When the deep water becomes anoxic, it affects the entire food web. Loss of vegetation and benthic animals affect the fish population, which in turn affect birdlife and marine mammals.
The cod that spawn in the deep parts of the Baltic Sea is greatly affected by the lack of oxygen.
Low level of oxygen also contributes to the summer algae blooms.
During hydrogen production, oxygen is produced as a by-product.
Usually, this oxygen is vented into the atmosphere, but now OX2 aims to use the oxygen from the offshore energy parks of Neptunus and Pleione, to oxygenate the deep waters in the Baltic Sea.
SMHI has been granted funding to scientifically investigate, in cooperation with OX2 among others, how the oxygen concentrations will be affected in the long term and what impact it could have on the marine environment and improve the biodiversity.
OX2 has applied to the government for permission to produce 370,000 tonnes of hydrogen at Neptunus, which would give almost 3 million tonnes of oxygen per year.
SMHI will be responsible for the research on how the oxygen levels will change in the Baltic Sea. Researchers from the Stockholm University and Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE) will be part of the project to discuss the effects of the oxygenation of the Baltic Sea and the marine environment.
As part of the project, the technical preconditions necessary to pump and spread the oxygen at the bottom will also be investigated, and OX2 will contribute with knowledge on the energy parks.
The research will focus on how the oxygen can spread in the Baltic Sea, how the level of oxygen can change over time, and what impact it will have on the ecosystems.