Author: cory

• The partnership will begin with an initial pilot plant in Norway that removes 1,000 tons of excess CO₂ from the ocean annually.
• The partners intend to test, mature and industrially scale the technology with the ambition to build large-scale, commercial plants.

LOS ANGELES and STAVANGER, Norway, Nov. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, multinational energy company Equinor, and Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company Captura, announced a partnership to develop industrial scale solutions to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the ocean. The partnership will begin with an initial 1,000-ton-per-year pilot plant in Norway that can potentially serve as a launchpad to build large-scale, commercial plants in key regions around the world.

The partners will form a joint team to collaborate on various configurations of Captura’s technology, with the goal to scale. The initial pilot plant will be located at Equinor’s Kårstø natural gas processing facility on the west coast of Norway. It will have a capture capacity of 1,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually. Feasibility and design of the Captura pilot has already commenced, with installation planned in Fall of 2024.

The pilot will be built onshore, drawing in seawater and removing a measurable stream of CO₂ from it. The captured CO₂ is planned for the commissioning of the Northern Lights facilities – the world’s first open-source CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure. This will test how DOC technology can deliver high-quality carbon removal credits that are reliable, safe, and certified. Such removals will be required to meet net zero targets by counteracting hard-to-decarbonize emissions. They can also be used to address emissions from the past.

“We believe that Captura has a promising and sustainable technology that could play a pivotal role in removing CO₂ from the carbon cycle,” said Morten Halleraker, senior vice president and head of New Business and Investments in Equinor. “We look forward to the collaboration with Captura by bringing in our industrial capabilities in order to de-risk and scale the deployment of the technology.”

The ocean is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. It absorbs approximately 30 per cent of global CO₂ emissions as part of a natural equilibrium with the atmosphere. Captura’s DOC solution enhances this natural carbon removal capability, without increasing CO₂ levels in the ocean. It uses renewable energy and electrodialysis technology to capture CO₂ directly from seawater. The CO₂-depleted seawater then has the capacity to absorb the same quantity of CO₂ from the air that was originally removed.

The Kårstø plant will be the final system in Captura’s pilot and scale-up program and is designed to demonstrate the technology’s readiness for commercial deployment. It follows a one-ton-per-year system that commenced operations at Newport Beach, California in August 2022, and a 100-ton-per-year system that was recently installed at the Port of Los Angeles.

“This marks a pivotal moment in our company’s progress,” said Steve Oldham, Captura CEO. “This significant partnership with Equinor enhances our reach and capability exponentially and signifies a huge advancement in our efforts. We’re thrilled to be joining forces with the Equinor team to continue driving towards climate relevant carbon removal.”

Captura’s process has been designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective, while at the same time creating minimal to zero impacts on the ocean ecosystem. It creates no by-products and doesn’t add anything new to the ocean – it simply removes excess CO₂ that the atmosphere then replaces.

Captura’s business model is to license its technology to deployment partners globally to enable rapid and widespread roll-out of its DOC technology. Equinor is an investor in Captura and its second plant deployment partner. Captura is also working with Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal project developer, to build DOC plants in Canada.

About Equinor:
Equinor is a broad international energy company headquartered in Norway with 22,000 employees in 30 countries. For 50 years, the company has turned natural resources into energy for people and progress for society. The ambition is to be a leading company in the energy transition, breaking new ground, creating value and supplying society with energy while achieving net zero by 2050.
www.equinor.com

About Captura:
Captura is a Direct Ocean Capture company headquartered in Pasadena, California. Captura combines innovative technology with the natural carbon removal powers of the ocean to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere at large scale and low-cost, providing a critical capability in the fight against climate change. Captura was founded at Caltech and its solution has been validated and supported by the Musk Foundation’s Carbon Removal XPRIZE, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, and Frontier Climate. For more information, visit www.capturacorp.com.

• The companies have partnered to install a Direct Ocean Capture pilot facility in Quebec that removes 100 tons of carbon dioxide from the ocean annually

• The pilot aims to validate the technology for commercial rollout in Canada and lead to deployment of facilities that remove up to one million tons annually

LOS ANGELES and MONTREAL, July 12, 2023 – Canada is poised to become a leader in a new, high-potential climate solution that removes carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from the ocean. Captura, an L.A.-based Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company founded at Caltech, and Deep Sky, a Montreal-based venture commercializing carbon removal and storage solutions at scale, are partnering to deploy DOC facilities in Canada. The partners will begin with a pilot demonstration of the technology capturing 100 tons of CO₂ annually, with the aim to eventually build commercial facilities that capture between 100,000 and one million tons annually.

The Captura pilot system will be located in Eastern Quebec in 2024 and will be powered by the region’s vast renewable hydroelectric energy. It aims to validate the technology for commercial deployment in Canada as part of Deep Sky’s mission to develop Canada into a world-leading hub for carbon removal. The pilot follows successful demonstrations of the technology in California as part of Captura’s scale-up program. This includes a one ton per year system that has been operating at Newport Beach since August 2022, and a 100 ton per year system that is running end-to-end in the company’s lab and will begin ocean operations in the coming months.

The partnership brings together a wealth of Canadian tech industry heavyweights. Deep Sky was founded by Fred Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk who created online travel agency Hopper, the most downloaded travel app in North America. They are joined as co-founders by Laurence Tosi, the former CFO of Airbnb and The Blackstone Group. Captura’s CEO, Steve Oldham, held a variety of executive roles at Canada’s leading aerospace company, MDA, and more recently served as CEO of Canadian Direct Air Capture (DAC) company Carbon Engineering. DAC is a similar carbon removal technology that removes CO2 directly from the atmosphere.

“Eastern Canada provides an ideal location for deployment of Captura’s technology,” said Steve Oldham, Captura CEO. “It has abundant renewable energy to power the system, a skilled workforce from the region’s oil and gas sector that has the expertise to build and operate DOC systems, and significant sequestration potential to permanently store the CO₂. This is a tremendous opportunity for Canada to become a leader in Direct Ocean Capture infrastructure and we’re thrilled to be working with Deep Sky to bring our technology to the country.”

Deep Sky is working to build large-scale carbon removal and storage infrastructure in Canada. Acting as a project developer, the company is bringing together the most promising direct air and ocean capture technologies to commercialize solutions at scale. This news marks Deep Sky’s first pilot technology partnership and Captura’s first international partnership to deploy its solution around the world. Captura’s business model is to license its technology to partners globally to enable rapid and widespread roll-out of its climate solution.

Both DAC and DOC technologies are a focus for Deep Sky due to their scalability and measurability. Both solutions remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere or ocean and deliver it as a measurable stream that can be permanently and safely sequestered. When used alongside emissions reductions strategies, this form of carbon removal can help the world achieve net zero targets by compensating for sectors of the economy that are challenging to decarbonize directly. If deployed in localized bays and inlets, Captura’s technology also has the potential to help counteract ocean acidification, which is causing devastating impacts to marine ecosystems and ocean-dependent communities.

“Climate change is the biggest existential threat to humankind,” said Fred Lalonde, Deep Sky Co-Founder. “Wildfires, global droughts, and record hurricanes are just the beginning. We’re serious about building large-scale carbon removal infrastructure to save our planet, and Captura’s scalable, durable and measurable technology stood out as a clear choice for Deep Sky’s first official technology partnership.”

The ocean is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing approximately 30 percent of global CO₂ emissions. Captura’s DOC solution amplifies this natural carbon removal capability, without increasing CO₂ levels in the ocean. The process uses just renewable energy and electrodialysis technology to capture CO₂ directly from seawater as it passes through the plant. When the CO₂-depleted seawater is returned to the ocean, it has the capacity to absorb the same quantity of CO₂ from the air that was originally removed.

Captura’s process has been specifically designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective, while at the same time creating minimal to zero impacts on the ocean ecosystem. It creates no by-products that need to be disposed of and doesn’t add anything new to the ocean – it simply removes excess CO₂ that the atmosphere then replaces.

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About Deep Sky:

Montreal-based Deep Sky is building the world’s first gigaton-scale carbon capture company, aiming to remove millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere and permanently store it underground. Deep Sky brings together the most promising direct air and ocean carbon capture companies under one roof to bring the largest supply of high quality carbon credits to the market and commercialize carbon removal and storage solutions like never before. For more information, visit: www.deepskyclimate.com. 

About Captura:

Captura is a Direct Ocean Capture company headquartered in Pasadena, California. Captura combines innovative technology with the natural carbon removal powers of the ocean to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at large scale and low-cost, providing a critical capability in the fight against climate change. Captura was founded at Caltech and its solution has been validated and supported by the Musk Foundation’s Carbon Removal XPRIZE, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, and Frontier Climate. For more information, visit www.capturacorp.com.