Ocean Visions Launchpad
The Ocean Visions Launchpad supports selected $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal competitors using ocean-based technologies to develop and validate their technology and business models and improve their chances of success. We work with selected teams to identify their specific needs and build customized expert advisory teams to provide ongoing advice and support.
Team: Captura
Team Captura is a group of Caltech scientists, engineers, professors, oceanographers, and more who are developing electrochemical approaches aimed at extracting CO2 from the ocean to sequester it safely.
The Technology
Captura is developing an offshore platform using a high-efficiency electrochemical pH swing (EpHS) technology. Shifting the balance between acidic and basic pH in ocean water results in the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the ocean shifting from carbonate and bicarbonate toward carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide can then be captured and sequestered underground in depleted offshore oil wells and other locations.
The Potential Advantages
The Captura system proposes autonomous, offshore operation of CO2 capture and sequestration, and is designed to provide energy and capture efficiencies that are competitive with direct air capture (DAC). System inputs include only oceanwater and sunlight, and the process does not generate any unwanted byproducts, such as hydrochloric acid and/or chlorine.
The Challenges
Some of the challenges that Ocean Visions will help address include questions around site selection (including understanding regulations related to discharge), social and environmental impact of the technology at scale, and building scalable offshore operations (incorporating renewable energy and working in challenging conditions).
Chengxiang Xiang
Research Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech
Harry Atwater
Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech