Treatment of seawater that suffers from a lack of oxygen

Author: Misk Alhussaini

Company/Institution: Highly Innovative Unique Foundation (HiUF)

Country: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

e-mail: Hiufsa.zn@gmail.com

The lack of oxygen in water is primarily caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture, and deforestation resulting into increased greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Oceans absorb more than 93% of the earth’s heat energy leading to warm water holding less oxygen as compared to cold waters. Also, the warm surface layers prevent the mixing of oxygen with the deep waters.

Inputs of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from waste waters and agriculture result in increased phytoplankton leading to low oxygen levels after nutrients are exhausted. Oceanic oxygen content has decreased by about 2% since the sixties while areas with low oxygen content have increased by 4.5 million square kilometres thus giving rise to over 500 dead zones.