Author: Tara Bojdak

Industry leader brings extensive experience in infrastructure and energy transformation

PASADENA, Calif., September 4, 2025 – Captura, a leader in Direct Ocean Capture technology for carbon dioxide removal, today announced the appointment of Johan Pfeiffer to its Board of Directors.

“We are delighted to welcome Johan to Captura’s board at such a pivotal moment in our growth,” said Bernard David, Board Chair of Captura. “His appointment expands the depth and capability of our board, bringing highly relevant expertise in infrastructure investment, energy services, and global operations. With Series B fundraising underway and commercialization on the horizon, Johan’s experience will be invaluable in helping to guide our strategy and accelerate our progress.”

Johan Pfeiffer brings more than 30 years of global infrastructure and energy experience to Captura’s board. He currently serves as managing director and lead operating partner at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, an investment platform with approximately $17 billion in assets under management since inception, where he oversees the value creation of the portfolio companies as well as serving on several boards.

Pfeiffer’s extensive background includes senior leadership positions at Johnson Controls, where he served as president for Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, and more than 20 years at FMC Technologies, where he held various global general management roles and helped transform the company into a leader in the oil and gas services and equipment sector. Earlier in his career, Pfeiffer held positions at Boston Consulting Group and Dow Inc.

“From my first introduction to Captura, I was struck by both the strength of its technology and the credibility of its world-class team and partners,” said Pfeiffer. “Having worked across global energy and infrastructure markets for decades, I see tremendous potential for this approach to make a material impact on the climate and energy challenge.

“I look forward to working alongside the board and leadership team to help accelerate commercialization and global deployment of the technology and the solution.”

Pfeiffer has also served on the boards of Hoegh Evi, Eureka Midstream, the Awty International School, and the Petroleum Equipment & Services Association.

Captura’s Direct Ocean Capture technology leverages the ocean’s natural carbon removal capabilities to extract CO₂ from seawater, creating capacity for the ocean to absorb more CO₂ from the atmosphere. The company’s process is designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective while creating minimal impact on ocean ecosystems.

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Scaling carbon removal to meet the climate challenge requires more than innovation—it requires deep cross-industry collaboration. At Captura, we’re building partnerships with organizations that share our vision and bring the complementary expertise needed to make progress happen.

Equinor has been one of those key partners from the start. From leading our Series A funding, to co-developing our 1,000-ton-per-year pilot plant, and expanding our collaboration through a long-term agreement, their support has been instrumental in our journey.

We recently caught up with Lionel Ribeiro, Carbon Removal Manager at Equinor, to hear what first sparked their interest in Captura and how the partnership has evolved. Here’s what he shared with us.

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What first stood out to Equinor about Captura’s Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology and approach?
At Equinor, we continuously assess and invest in emerging carbon removal technologies, and Captura’s approach impressed us with its scientific rigor, cost efficiency, and scalability. Unlike other methods that require extensive infrastructure or expensive feedstocks, Captura’s DOC process extracts CO₂ directly from seawater without using chemicals and without generating waste, making it both technically and environmentally compelling. The high-purity CO₂ produced is easily monitored, ensuring transparent removal accounting.

Captura’s technology aligns with Equinor’s expertise in CO₂ management, renewable electricity generation, and water processing, making it a natural fit for investment and collaboration.

How does Captura’s technology align with Equinor’s broader climate and sustainability goals?
Equinor is committed to advancing the energy transition and achieving net-zero emissions (scopes 1, 2, and 3) by 2050. Our strategy includes exploring scalable, high-integrity decarbonization technologies that complement our business and support climate goals.

We are working with our partners to develop technologies and value chains for emissions removed from the atmosphere and geologically stored. Our Northern Lights project will serve as Europe’s first facility for storage of biogenic CO₂ emissions from 2027. In 2024, Equinor was one of the largest buyers of Carbon Dioxide Removal credits. We have taken positions in BECCS, direct air capture, and direct ocean capture (Captura), as well as bio-diversity restoration and will continue to explore opportunities.

Captura’s technology is able to integrate with existing energy infrastructure and broader decarbonization technologies, like CO₂ transport, storage, and utilization, reinforcing its potential as a piece of the net-zero puzzle.

What gave Equinor confidence in Captura’s ability to scale this technology successfully?
Our evaluation process looks not only at the technology, but also at the team behind it and their ability to execute. With Captura, we saw a technically sound solution, supported by deep expertise and a clear vision for deployment. We were impressed by their multidisciplinary expertise across electrochemistry, engineering, and oceanography, and by their collaborative, solutions-oriented mindset.

Captura’s iterative R&D approach and commitment to field testing instilled confidence in their disciplined and transparent scaling capabilities. Over the past two years, our joint technology qualification program has advanced and de-risked the technology through established test plans and milestones. Additionally, Captura’s ability to attract a diverse coalition of strategic partners further underscores its scaling potential.

Captura and Equinor recently partnered on a 1,000-ton-per-year DOC pilot plant in Hawaii, which has been operational since February 2025. Can you tell us more about the partnership and how our teams worked together?
From the beginning, Captura and Equinor shared a clear objective: to advance DOC technology and demonstrate its commercial viability while upholding the highest safety standards.

This led to a highly collaborative process that leveraged our strengths and shared vision for commercial-scale carbon removal. Rather than working in silos, our teams have worked closely and adopted a unified “one team” mindset to address technical challenges and enhance operational efficiency.

The result was the successful deployment of the largest operational DOC facility, completed rapidly and safely in just over two months. This speed highlights the modularity and simplicity of Captura’s system. The pilot plant serves as a stepping-stone in Captura’s technology validation roadmap, paving the way for large-scale commercial plants and exemplifying the strength of our partnership.

What excites Equinor most about the potential of DOC as a climate solution?
The potential for Captura’s DOC technology to achieve both large scale and low cost is exciting. It uniquely benefits from the vast, natural scalability of the ocean, and the industrial integration advantages of engineered systems. This dual benefit positions DOC as a compelling solution from both a cost-efficiency and deployment perspective.

We’re excited by the potential of DOC to deliver durable, measurable carbon removal at scale and by the opportunity to partner with Captura to help accelerate its path to deployment.

Simply put, Captura’s technology requires access to water processing, low-carbon power, and CO₂ value chains – requirements that align perfectly with Equinor’s strengths as a pioneer in offshore CCS technology, which dates back nearly 30 years!

Captura’s 1000 ton-per-year Direct Ocean Capture pilot plant has been operating in Kona, Hawaii since February 2025—and now you can explore it from anywhere in the world through a virtual 360° tour.

As you move through the site, you’ll see all the major components that make up our system and learn how each one plays a role in pulling CO₂ out of the ocean and atmosphere.

Developed in partnership with Equinor, the Kona pilot is the critical final step in proving Captura’s technology is ready to scale. It demonstrates our modular technology at the size and performance level that can be replicated for larger deployments. With those results in hand, we’re now designing our first commercial facility, which is targeted to capture between 30,000 and 50,000 tons of CO₂ per year.

Take a look around and see Direct Ocean Capture in action.

Creates first U.S. facility to domestically produce bipolar membranes and electrodialysis systems

PASADENA, Calif., June 10, 2025 — Captura, a leading Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company, today announced the establishment of its new global headquarters and manufacturing facility in Pasadena, California. The 30,000-square-foot site will house the company’s growing team, expand R&D capacity, and launch commercial production of Captura’s high-performance electrodialysis technology—making this the first facility in the U.S. to manufacture complete electrodialysis systems, from membrane fabrication to stack assembly.

Founded at Caltech in 2021, Captura’s advanced electrodialysis system delivers up to 10 times higher performance than commercially available alternatives while requiring less capital investment and energy. Production of this technology will serve dual purposes: powering Captura’s DOC carbon removal systems while also being sold to a range of industries, including desalination, wastewater treatment, critical mineral extraction, new energy, life sciences, and other electrochemical carbon removal approaches. The expanded operations also position Captura to grow its workforce, generating additional skilled jobs in engineering, manufacturing, and operations.

“This new facility is a major step forward in scaling Captura’s operations and accelerating commercial deployment,” said Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura. “It also reflects our commitment to advancing homegrown technologies through American manufacturing. As the first U.S. manufacturing center for full electrodialysis systems, we’re creating local jobs, strengthening regional supply chains, and establishing domestic production capabilities for a high-demand electrochemical technology, reducing American dependence on foreign-made components.”

Captura’s proprietary electrodialysis technology—a process that uses ion-selective membranes and electrical current to separate ions in solution—significantly outperforms commercially available systems in both efficiency and cost. At the core of this advancement is Captura’s high-performance, PFAS-free bipolar membrane, which is made using polymer materials that are significantly less expensive than commercially available options. Captura has also developed an improved electrodialysis stack design that further enhances overall system performance.

“Our electrodialysis technology was born in Caltech’s Pasadena laboratories, so it’s fitting that we’re now scaling its commercial production here,” said CX Xiang, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Captura. “This facility enables us to develop, optimize, customize and manufacture our best-in-class bipolar membranes and electrodialysis stacks in-house—a vertically integrated approach that positions Captura to deliver one of, if not the, highest-performance and lowest-cost electrodialysis solutions on the market.”

Electrodialysis technology is instrumental for multiple industries including desalination, wastewater treatment, critical mineral extraction, and life sciences. Producing Captura’s advanced systems domestically can help dramatically reduce costs across these sectors and strengthen America’s position in the global technology supply chain.

Captura’s electrodialysis system also forms the basis of its DOC technology, which extracts CO₂ directly from seawater without chemical additives or waste products. This creates a measurable stream of CO₂ that can be permanently stored or utilized in a range of industrial applications, while allowing the ocean to naturally absorb more CO₂ from the atmosphere.

More information on Captura’s proprietary electrodialysis technology can be found here.