The ocean is the answer
Enormous, powerful, and readily available — the ocean is the ideal carbon removal engine. It operates in equilibrium with the atmosphere, drawing carbon out of the air to maintain a natural balance.
The ocean absorbs nearly one-third of our carbon emissions — but at great cost to itself. Captura has designed a solution to enhance this natural cycle while safeguarding the ocean’s health: removing excess CO2 from the upper ocean, so it can absorb more carbon from the air.
Our Direct Ocean Capture system runs with just two ingredients: seawater and renewable electricity. Using Captura’s proprietary membrane and electrodialysis technology, it extracts CO2 directly from seawater to be permanently stored or reused. Once the carbon is removed, the ocean naturally draws down CO2 from the atmosphere to rebalance.
The net result is the removal of excess CO2 from the atmosphere via the ocean, without adding anything to the ocean. The process creates no waste and requires minimal land and no fresh water. With CO2 150x more concentrated volumetrically in the ocean compared to air, this provides an inherently scalable and efficient way to remove excess atmospheric CO2.
How our Direct
Ocean Capture
system works
Technology
Simple, streamlined and scalable
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So simple, it scales
To remove carbon at gigaton scale, we need to do so in a seamless way. Requiring no rare-Earth minerals and leaving no by-products behind, our streamlined process is designed for scale.
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Engineered for efficiency
With only seawater and renewable electricity as inputs, and enabled by our ultra-efficient proprietary membranes, Captura systems are elegantly simple and highly effective.
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Lowering the cost for all
The ocean is the greatest carbon removal mechanism on the planet, and amplifying its natural power allows for big impact at low cost.
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A measurable impact
Captura systems capture a verifiable stream of CO2 to be permanently stored or reused. Learn about our monitoring, reporting & verification (MRV) approach here.
Ocean health
Ocean
above all
The ocean is our greatest ally against climate change—but only if we take care of it. Captura’s system boosts natural cycles, while putting ocean health first. Our process requires zero additives, adds nothing to the ocean, and leaves no chemicals behind.
Our dedicated oceanography team continuously monitors our interaction with marine ecosystems to optimize our process to make a lasting, positive impact.
Progress
The first wave of climate solutions
From inception in the labs of Caltech to a rigorous technology piloting program, Captura is scaling up Direct Ocean Capture to bring tangible benefits to our planet.
With three pilot systems of increasing capacity, our team is rapidly levelling up our technology to be market ready. Following this pilot program, Captura will move into large-scale commercial deployments with individual plants that range from tens of thousands to millions of tons of CO2 removed annually.
Our first pilot system operated at Caltech’s Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Newport Beach, CA.
2022Our second-generation system was installed at marine research facility AltaSea at the Port of L.A.
2023Our third pilot is being built at the Hawai’i Ocean Science & Technology Park in partnership with Equinor
2024Bring new life to existing structures
Our early commercial plan includes scalable deployments that leverage existing ocean infrastructure, such as desalination plants or utilities that use seawater for cooling. We can also co-locate our systems with retired oil & gas rigs, effectively repurposing fossil fuel infrastructure into next-generation carbon removal facilities.
Longer term, we envision megaton-scale standalone Captura platforms powered by offshore renewable energy to address carbon emissions across the globe.
Partner with us
Power the path
to net zero
Build
plants
License our technology to build and operate plants around the world.
Sequester or utilize CO2
Partner with us to permanently store or reuse the CO2 we capture.
Invest in a clean future
Carbon removal is prime for investment—join us on our climate mission.
Supply
equipment
Deliver equipment critical to building the clean infrastructure our planet needs.
