The technology was developed at TU Delft and at the Wetsus laboratories in Leeuwarden. An electrochemical process that strips CO2 from the water, leading the carbon-free water back to the sea where it can once again absorb CO2 from the air. SeaO2 aims to remove a Gigaton of CO2 from the oceans by 2050 to protect the earth from further warming.
Ruben Brands, founder and CEO of the company, said: “The ocean is a giant sponge for carbon dioxide, one-third of all carbon dioxide emissions end up in the sea. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the ocean is 150 times higher than that in the air, which makes it a very good source for capturing CO2. In short: the solution to the climate problem lies in the water.”
SeaO2's mission is to protect the planet from further warming by reducing the concentration of CO2 in the sea and - consequently - in the air. In this way, ocean acidification is also counteracted, contributing to the ocean ecosystem. The Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology developed by the company uses only seawater and green electricity to divide seawater into an acidic and an alkaline stream, with no need of chemicals or heat.
With the acid created and the help of a vacuum technique, carbon dioxide is then removed from the larger acidic stream. What remains is a stream of seawater devoid of CO2, which once back in the ocean, regains its natural equilibrium by absorbing CO2 from the air. The extracted CO2 is compressed and can be stored or utilised in various applications, such as plastic production, green methanol, and sustainable aviation fuels.
From prototype to scale-up
The system with DOC technology is energy-efficient and can be applied at various locations. The system can be switched on and off in a matter of seconds and is therefore also perfectly suited for grid balancing. The SeaO2 prototype stripped the first batch of CO2 from seawater at the Afsluitdijk last year. Launch of the pilot plant with an annual capacity of 250 tons is planned in summer of 2024.
In the meantime, they are in the process of a seed funding round slated to run for the next couple of months. With the goal of reaching a €5 - 10 million investment, the company aims to scale up to capturing 2.5 kilotons of CO2 by 2025 and 1 megaton by 2030. This is good news for ocean ecosystems threatened by ever-increasing acidification and for the Earth as a whole, which is struggling with warming from greenhouse gases such as CO2.
Rose Sharifian, founder and CTO of SeaO2, who received her PhD from TU Delft on carbon absorption from the ocean in 2020, said, “The technology I developed under the guidance of David Vermaas is extremely sustainable and completely free of chemicals. On one side, seawater and green energy go in, and on the other, CO2 and deacidified water come out. In time, this way we can stop climate problems with the help of the sea.”