Tag: XPRIZE
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- Building on its success as one of 15 teams awarded a US$1M Milestone Award by XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation, Captura is now working toward the US$50M grand prize to be awarded in 2025
- This follows recent commercial progress made by the company, including the close of a US$45.3M Series A financing – one of the largest Series A rounds into a carbon removal company
LOS ANGELES (May 8th, 2024) — Today, XPRIZE Carbon Removal announced the top 20 finalists in its US$100 million global competition, with Captura named among the successful companies. With more than 1,300 teams from 88 countries competing, this cohort of top 20 innovators represent some of the most promising carbon removal solutions on the planet. Captura’s inclusion on the list – one of only four ocean-based solutions – highlights the great potential of its Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere via the ocean at a climate-relevant scale.
XPRIZE Carbon Removal is a four-year competition to find scalable solutions that can capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere or oceans and sequester it durably and sustainably. Teams were evaluated across three key areas – operations, sustainability, and cost. To win the US$50 million grand prize, teams must demonstrate their ability to execute a substantial demonstration that approaches the competition’s goal of removing 1,000 net tonnes of CO2 in the final year of the competition, and a viable pathway to reaching megatonne scale in the coming years and eventually gigatonne scale with an understanding of their environmental and social impacts.
Captura’s advancement into the final stage of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition follows its previously granted US$1 million Milestone Award from XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation in April 2022, and underscores the company’s rapid progress in scaling its DOC technology. With the operational success of two pilot systems, a 1 -ton-per-year and 100-ton-per-year system at the Port of Los Angeles, Captura is now working with international energy company Equinor to build a 1000-ton-per-year DOC pilot plant in Karsto, Norway, slated to commence operations late this year.
Additionally, Captura recently closed its Series A financing round, amassing a total of US$45.3 million, one of the highest Series A closings for a carbon removal company. These commercial milestones, in conjunction with the recognition from the XPRIZE Carbon Removal judges, positions Captura to become a major player in the carbon removal field as it increases its focus on deploying large-scale, commercial plants in the near future.
This achievement also affirms Captura’s dedication to sustainable and responsible deployment – a key criteria for XPRIZE Carbon Removal. Captura’s DOC technology has been designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective, while leaving minimal to zero impacts on the marine ecosystem. The process adds nothing new to the ocean and leaves no by-products behind; it simply removes excess CO2 from the ocean that the atmosphere then replaces. Captura’s practices for ensuring its ocean operations are safe are outlined in the company’s publicly available Ocean Health & MRV Protocol.
QUOTES:
Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE said: “For the world to effectively address greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removal is an essential element of the path to Net Zero. There’s no way to reverse humanity’s impact on the climate without extracting carbon from our atmosphere and oceans. We need a range of bold, innovative CDR solutions to manage the vast quantities of CO2 released into our environment and impacting our planet. The teams that have been competing for this Prize are all part of building a set of robust and effective solutions and our 20 teams advancing to the final stage of XPRIZE Carbon Removal will have an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to have a significant impact on the climate.”
Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director of XPRIZE Carbon Removal said: “This cohort of exceptional teams represents a diversity of innovations and solutions across a range of CDR pathways, and shows the significant progress the industry is making in a short period of time. Over the past three years, this competition has helped accelerate the pace of technology development for a whole new industry of high-potential solutions aimed at reversing climate change.”
Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura said: “We are deeply honored to be counted among this distinguished list of top 20 finalists in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition. This is a remarkable recognition from XPRIZE Carbon Removal and the Musk Foundation of the hard work and dedication of our team in delivering a scalable, sustainable, and low-cost climate solution. The sheer scale of the climate challenge means we are going to need as many feasible tools as possible, and we thank XPRIZE Carbon Removal, and all our fellow innovators, for their continued efforts in driving this important industry forward.”
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About XPRIZE
XPRIZE is an established global leader in designing, launching, and executing large scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. Our unique model democratizes innovation by incentivizing crowd-sourced, scientifically viable solutions to create a more equitable and abundant future for all. Donate, learn more or join a team at xprize.org.
About Captura Corporation
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. To learn more about Captura, our progress, and technology, watch our video below.
Captura Looks Back at 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, Captura reflects on a remarkable year of growth, strategic collaborations, partnerships, pilot expansions, and recognition for our pioneering efforts in ocean-based carbon removal technology. We are proud to end the year with a major milestone; our 100-ton-per-year ocean carbon removal system at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles is successfully operating end-to-end and capturing excess CO2 from the ocean. Using our Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology, this is our second operating pilot system!
The success of our 100-ton-per-year system lays the groundwork for large-scale commercialization and highlights the rapid progress Captura is making toward being a global climate solution. We thank SoCalGas for the funding of our pilot– it has been instrumental to the success of our pilot program and our efforts to scale up our technology so it can make a meaningful impact on the climate challenge.
Strategic Partnerships and Global Expansion
As we continue to grow our company, a major highlight has been the announcement of new pilot plants in Quebec and Norway in 2024 through strategic partnerships. Next year, we’re working with Deep Sky to deploy a Captura pilot system in Canada, starting with a pilot demonstration in Eastern Quebec that can capture 100 tons of CO2 from the ocean annually. Our collective aim is to eventually build commercial facilities in Canada that capture between 100,000 and one million tons annually.
That’s not our only pilot expansion next year. Captura is partnering with Equinor, a major player in the energy and engineering sectors, to deploy a 1,000-ton-per-year plant in Norway that can potentially serve as a launchpad to build large-scale, commercial plants in key regions around the world. The CO2 captured at this pilot is planned for the commissioning of the Northern Lights facilities – the world’s first open-source CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. This will be the final system in Captura’s technology piloting program and positions Captura to rapidly scale DOC and meet the increasing demand for sustainable solutions.
Captura wishes to thank all our partners and vendors who work with us every day to develop and grow our business and technology.
MRV Milestones and Investor Confidence
Captura believes the ocean is our greatest ally against climate change—but only if we take care of it. In October, Captura released our Carbon Dioxide Removal Pathway, outlining our practices for both monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) and ensuring our ocean operations are safe for the marine ecosystem. This will be a living document where we’ll publish data and results from our pilot systems and testing work, marking a crucial step in promoting transparency and accountability.
As part of a commitment to accountability, carbon credit suppliers collaboratively crafted the Reykjavik Protocol—a set of principles guiding responsible market entry. Captura proudly signed and supports these principles, standing alongside fellow innovators deploying technologies that harness natural processes to combat excess carbon in our environment.
Early this year, Captura announced our US$12 million Series A financing round. This milestone not only injected essential capital into the company but also brought aboard a global cohort of strategic investors who bring key experience and expertise to help us scale and deploy our solution.
Stay tuned for more major funding news in the new year!
Internal Growth
Captura experienced substantial internal growth, expanding our team, and almost tripling its size in less than a year! This expansion included new team members in our Engineering, Pilot plant, Oceanography and MRV, Electrodialysis, Communication, and Human Resources teams.
Recognition
Captura’s commitment to innovation and environmental stewardship did not go unnoticed, as Captura was named one of the most promising climate tech startups of 2023 by Business Insider, and one of the 10 most prominent ocean carbon removal companies by Carbon Herald. Our work in the carbon removal space also earned mentions in Reuters, The Times, The Verge, Time Magazine, Axios and more.
Government Recognition and Policy Advancements
2023 was a big year for climate policy momentum and support for carbon removal and ocean-based solutions. At COP28, we saw positive progress with new language agreed for the first time on the need to transition away from fossil fuels, and reference to the role of carbon removal. In the European Union (EU), the Carbon Removal Certification Framework has entered the final negotiation stage, a crucial last step toward adoption of this important framework to scale up, certify, and verify carbon removals in the EU.
Closer to home, Captura was encouraged to see the U.S. government introduce the new Fast-Track Action Committee on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal as part of its new Ocean Climate Action Plan – the first-ever, government-wide approach for leveraging the power of the ocean to combat climate change.
We were also pleased to see the U.S. Department of Energy release details for its $35M Commercial CDR Purchase Prize in which it will directly procure carbon removal from solutions that “capture CO2 that is already in the atmosphere or upper hydrosphere”. We support this “one-ecosytem” approach that reinforces the need for a portfolio of strategies from both land and sea because they so closely interact.
As 2023 ends, Captura recognizes that even with these positive developments, much more work is needed, and thank all those working hard to develop and grow climate policies and markets so we can collectively progress on our climate goals.
Looking Forward to 2024
As Captura concludes this transformative year, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing feasible, scalable solutions for carbon removal. The partnerships, investments, and achievements of 2023 position Captura as a high-potential solution to help combat climate change through our innovative DOC technology. With our technology piloting program rapidly progressing, and a growing number of global partners and investors joining our team, we are gearing up to be ready for commercial scale in the near future. As we eagerly anticipate the year ahead, Captura is poised to continue its impactful journey toward a more sustainable and net-zero future.
We hope you can follow along and remember to sign up to receive exciting updates and milestones from Captura in 2024!
