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For the preceding few age , direct airwave seizure has been seen as a potential silver bullet to the climate crisis . But now a startup originally from the snow-clad waste matter of Iceland is taking a fresh approach : removing carbon from saltwater .
The industry criterion for removing carbon with verbatim breeze gaining control method costs anywhere between $ 230 to $ 630 ( more or less € 210 to € 570 ) per metrical ton , according to theInternational Energy Agency . However , Amsterdam - basedBrineworks , a fellowship specializing in brine electrolysis technology , says its innovative method is expected to cost under $ 100 per gross ton of CO2at weighing machine . This would put it in a pretty efficient space compared with other methods .
It recently secured $ 2.2 million ( more or less € 2 million ) in financial support lead by Nordic VC house Pale Blue Dot .
It ’s by now wide accepted that the major planet must keep global thawing below 1.5 ° light speed , otherwise cataclysmic weather events will be loose . We ’ve already seen , for case , thedevastationwrought on Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina , and Tennessee , as a outcome ofHurricane Helene . In monastic order to reduce this warming , we must remove the enormous amount of atomic number 6 that have been thrown into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution .
So - called direct sea capture ( DOC ) technology could be “ sustainable , scalable , and cost - effective ” said Brineworks CEO Gudfinnur Sveinsson , over a call with TechCrunch .
Brineworks ’ seawater electrolyzer not only take out CO2from seawater but also produces dark-green hydrogen ( H2 ) as a result of the process , creating a revenue stream . And because it can run on solar or nothingness and the atomic number 1 stored in army tank , the cognitive process can be conducted off - grid .
“ What if any Carry Amelia Moore Nation in the world could make sustainable oil from renewable electrical energy and brine alone ? We think Brineworks found the samara to that , ” said Hampus Jakobsson , general better half at Pale Blue Dot in a statement .
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Oceans are far more dense compare to the atmosphere , meaning the compactness of marine CO2is about 150 time higher than its is in the air . That means the energy required for DOC to capture C dioxide is proportionally far less compared to using DAC .
Brineworks might well be part of a new wave of ocean - borne atomic number 6 capture . Caltech - foundedCalcareais a carbon - sequestration startup explicate a technology thatcapturesship - display panel carbon dioxide and converts it to safe , indestructible ocean salts . Also trifle in the DOC space is startupCaptura , which has raise $ 34.5 million from investors including Maersk Growth and Freeflow Ventures .
Meanwhile , Brineworks is now starting its first pilot on the Canary Islands and hopes to capture a metric ton per week of carbon , harmonize to Sveinsson .