Climate change is a global challenge that requires urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate its adverse effects. With the increasing threat of climate change, companies are actively seeking innovative solutions to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability.
Captura Corporation, a company spun off from the California Institute of Technology, has developed an innovative way to combat climate change. The company has designed a direct ocean capture (DOC) process, using electrodialysis technology to extract carbon dioxide from the ocean while returning purified water back into the ocean. The company intends to perform large-scale carbon removal with a lower cost than other existing methods.
The process begins by purifying a filtered stream of ocean water using Captura’s proprietary electrodialysis technology. This technology uses renewable electricity to split salt and water into an acid and an alkali base. The acid is added to the ocean water, triggering a chemical reaction that extracts carbon dioxide from the water.
The process is then accelerated using a gas-liquid contactor and vacuum pump, resulting in a stream of purified carbon dioxide that can be reused or sequestered. The carbon clean-up technology can extract gigatons of carbon from the ocean, and the decarbonized water can react with the atmosphere to draw down an equivalent quantity of carbon dioxide. After being filtered, seawater has the remarkable capacity to reabsorb the same amount of CO2 from the atmosphere that was initially removed, making it an effective tool for mitigating the effects of climate change.
The company has already set up a pilot facility in Newport Beach, California, and plans to install a second direct ocean capture system capable of cleaning 100 tons (90.7 tonnes) of carbon dioxide from the ocean each year.
Captura Corporation’s latest technology offers a promising solution for mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. Through collaborations with organizations like AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles, the company is advancing its technology and monitoring how the system interacts with the ocean.
This work is a great example of California companies working together to take a leading role in the fight against climate change.
Source: Captura Corporation