An Example of the Integration of Conservation and Industry

As your boat approaches the UWM, the first thing you notice is what looks like an island taken over by a busy port.  It is 6kms long and 500m wide, owned by a multinational whose emblem is evident everywhere.  It is anchored in the deep ocean and can swivel under its own power to face across the waves.  The structure is concrete studded with tall towers, each topped with a huge conical 'Wind Sock', catching the breeze and displaying the company logo.

In the lee of the UWM is an area of complete calm.  Several ships are moored alongside; some are coasters and some regular container ships, but some are huge; larger than anything which conventional harbours can cope with.  The port is fully automated, and the handling machines weave their way in and out among the 3-high stacks of containers.  The enormous ships are turned around in 12 hours; they wait for no tides, winds, pilots or strikes.  They are owned by the same multinational and have to pay no port fees, demurrage, bunkering fees etc.  The entire port is outside territorial waters and is therefore not only duty-free, but exempt from all the annoying 'national security' issues, union pressures, port regulations and the like.  It is even free of ground rent and rates!  Security is easy to organise, and activity continues on a 24-hour basis.

The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) meets you at the passenger terminal, your ship looks like a toy compared with the goliaths around.  He explains that the UWM is not only a port.
In moderate weather conditions (5 m/sec wind, 4m waves) it extracts 3000 tons of CO2 per hour from the atmosphere.  At $10 per ton bounty paid by the World Carbon Trading bank, that is a tidy income. The UWM also produces an average of 300 Megawatts of power, of which 55% is used in CO2 sequestration and 25% as electricity by the port equipment and lights.  The remainder is used for electrolysis of seawater, which produces hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine.  During rough weather, we are churning the stuff out, he claims. 
Although the market for oxygen is not very good, hydrogen is a premium fuel and generates a good return, dependant on global spot prices.  Overall, annual income from 'gases' is about $400 million, of which two thirds is CO2.  This, he states, pays for the capital investment and running costs of the UWM… the container handling is bunce, and the company keeps those figures to themselves.
If the market for CO2 declines, then production will be transferred to hydrogen, which should produce a slight improvement in annual income.

You note that the 'deck' seems completely steady… Yes, confirms the OIM, because of its size, the UWM not only straddles any ocean wave, but also extracts the energy from the waves, leaving nothing to 'rock the boat'.  200 meters beneath the ocean is a submerged 'keel' which adds anti-heave inertia to the 'bow' edge where the wave impact is greatest.  The deck, although flat-looking, actually slopes down from 25m above water level at the 'bow' to only 10m at the calm 'stern' edge.  This, he explains, is the ideal height for container loading.  Even in the worst storms, there is no discernible movement between ship and deck, and the 'wind socks' take the sting out of winter gales so that container handling can continue without stop.
Apparently these 'wind socks' are the key to CO2 removal; they are made from a carbon-fibre mesh impregnated with a special semi-permeable membrane developed to let 90% of the air leak through, while keeping all the CO2 inside.  This CO2 enriched flow leaves the 'toe' of the sock and feeds the wave cells under the deck, where it is compressed in several stages.  The CO2 is extracted by washing with seawater, and the resulting 'heavy' seawater is returned to the ocean at a depth of about 4kms.  Here it will join the underlying ocean currents and not re-emerge for some centuries.