Captura and Deep Sky partner to fight climate change by deploying ocean carbon removal
by CM Staff
Deep Sky is working to build large-scale carbon removal and storage infrastructure in Canada.
LOS ANGELES and MONTREAL — Captura, an L.A.-based Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company founded at Caltech, and Deep Sky, a Montreal-based venture commercializing carbon removal and storage solutions at scale, are partnering to deploy DOC facilities in Canada. The partners will begin with a pilot demonstration of the technology capturing 100 tons of CO2 annually, with the aim to eventually build commercial facilities that capture between 100,000 and one million tons annually.
The Captura pilot system will be located in Eastern Quebec in 2024 and will be powered by the region’s renewable hydroelectric energy. It aims to validate the technology for commercial deployment in Canada as part of Deep Sky’s mission to develop Canada into a hub for carbon removal. The pilot follows successful demonstrations of the technology in California as part of Captura’s scale-up program. This includes a one ton per year system that has been operating at Newport Beach since August 2022, and a 100 ton per year system that is running end-to-end in the company’s lab and will begin ocean operations in the coming months.
The partnership brings together a wealth of Canadian tech industry heavyweights. Deep Sky was founded by Fred Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk who created online travel agency Hopper, the most downloaded travel app in North America. They are joined as co-founders by Laurence Tosi, the former CFO of Airbnb and The Blackstone Group. Captura’s CEO, Steve Oldham, held a variety of executive roles at Canada’s leading aerospace company, MDA, and more recently served as CEO of Canadian Direct Air Capture (DAC) company Carbon Engineering. DAC is a similar carbon removal technology that removes CO2 directly from the atmosphere.
“Eastern Canada provides an ideal location for deployment of Captura’s technology,” said Steve Oldham, Captura CEO. “It has abundant renewable energy to power the system, a skilled workforce from the region’s oil and gas sector that has the expertise to build and operate DOC systems, and significant sequestration potential to permanently store the CO2. This is a tremendous opportunity for Canada to become a leader in Direct Ocean Capture infrastructure and we’re thrilled to be working 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. Acting as a project developer, the company is bringing together direct air and ocean capture technologies to commercialize solutions at scale.
Both DAC and DOC technologies are a focus for Deep Sky due to their scalability and measurability. Both solutions remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere or ocean and deliver it as a measurable stream that can be permanently and safely sequestered. When used alongside emissions reductions strategies, this form of carbon removal can help the world achieve net zero targets by compensating for sectors of the economy that are challenging to decarbonize directly.
“Climate change is the biggest existential threat to humankind,” said Fred Lalonde, Deep Sky Co-Founder. “Wildfires, global droughts, and record hurricanes are just the beginning. We’re 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.”
