Captura and Deep Sky team up to fight climate change by implementing ocean carbon removal in Canada

• Companies teamed up to install a Direct Ocean Capture pilot plant in Quebec that removes 100 tons of carbon dioxide from the ocean each year
• Pilot Project Aims to Validate Technology for Commercial Launch in Canada and Lead to Implementation of Facilities That Remove Up to One Million Tonnes Per Year

LOS ANGELES and MONTREAL, July 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canada is poised to become a leader in a new high-potential climate solution that removes carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from the ocean. Captura, a Los Angeles-based Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company founded in Caltech, and Deep Sky, a Montreal-based firm that markets large-scale carbon removal and storage solutions, are collaborating to deploy DOC facilities in Canada. The partners will start with a pilot demonstration of the technology that captures 100 tonnes of CO2₂ per year, with the aim of eventually building commercial facilities catching between 100,000 and one million tons per year.

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

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

Eastern Canada offers an ideal location for implementing Captura technology, said Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura. It has abundant renewable energy to power the system, a skilled workforce from the region’s oil and gas industry that has the experience to build and operate DOC systems, and significant sequestration potential to permanently store CO₂. This is a huge opportunity for Canada to become a leader in Direct Ocean Capture infrastructure and we are excited to work 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. As a project developer, the company is bringing together the most promising direct capture technologies from air and ocean to commercialize solutions at scale. This news marks Deep Sky’s first pilot technology partnership and Captura’s first international partnership to roll out its solution worldwide. Captura’s business model is to license its technology to partners globally to enable rapid and widespread deployment of its climate solution.

Both DAC and DOC technologies are at the core of Deep Sky due to their scalability and measurability. Both solutions remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere or ocean and delivered as a measurable flux that can be permanently and safely sequestered. When used in conjunction with emissions reduction strategies, this form of carbon removal can help the world achieve net zero goals by offsetting sectors of the economy that are difficult to decarbonise directly. When deployed in localized bays and inlets, Capturas technology also has the potential to help counteract ocean acidification, which is causing devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and ocean-dependent communities.

Climate change is the greatest existential threat to humanity, said Fred Lalonde, co-founder of Deep Sky. Wildfires, global droughts and record hurricanes are just the beginning. We are 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 about 30% of global CO2₂ emissions. The Capturas DOC solution amplifies this natural carbon removal capacity, without increasing CO₂ levels in the ocean. The process uses only renewable energy and electrodialysis technology to capture the CO₂ directly from sea water as it passes through the plant. When the CO₂-depleted seawater is returned to the ocean, it has the ability to absorb the same amount of CO₂ from the originally removed air.

The Capturas process was specifically designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective while creating little or no impact on the ocean ecosystem. It creates no by-products that need to be disposed of and it adds nothing new to the ocean, it simply removes excess CO₂ which then the atmosphere replaces.

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

About Capture:
Captura is a Direct Ocean Capture company headquartered in Pasadena, California. Captura combines innovative technology with the natural carbon-removing powers of the ocean to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere on a large scale and at 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 Musk Foundations Carbon Removal XPRIZE, Department of Energys ARPA-E and Frontier Climate. For more information visit www.capturacorp.com.

Media contacts:
Tara Boydak
Capture Corporation
tara.bojdak@capturacorp.com

Brook Wallace
Deep Sky
brooks@deepskyclimate.com