Captura DOC site rendering — Captura Corp

Elon Musk-Backed Carbon Capture Technology Really Could Save The World

Captura is utterly revolutionary!

Will Lockett
Predict
Published in
5 min readMay 23, 2023

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Carbon capture is one of the most promising pieces of climate technology out there. If used correctly, it has the potential to not only halt climate change, but turn back time and repair the damage we have done. The only problem is most carbon capture systems are insanely expensive and practically impossible to scale to any useful size. But this is where the Cal-tech spin-off Captura comes in. Their ocean-based carbon capture technology is poised to not only be one of the cheapest on the market, but also has the potential to reach the gigatonne-per-year capacity level. No wonder it has attracted massive investment from the DOE and Elon Musk. But how does this technology work? And can it really stop climate change?

Captura’s technology removes carbon dioxide from the ocean. Which, at first glance, seems a little backward; after all, it is atmospheric carbon dioxide that is driving climate change. However, carbon dioxide is soluble, causing the oceans to absorb vast amounts of it. In fact, about 30% of our emissions are absorbed by the ocean each year. Once absorbed, the carbon dioxide turns into mostly bicarbonate with a little bit of carbonic acid.

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Will Lockett
Predict

Independent journalist covering global politics, climate change and technology. Get articles early at www.planetearthandbeyond.co