Captura Advances to the Top 20 Finalists in XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition

• Building on its success as one of 15 teams awarded a US$1M Milestone Award by XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation, Captura is now working toward the US$50M grand prize to be awarded in 2025

• This follows recent commercial progress made by the company, including the close of a US$45.3M Series A financing – one of the largest Series A rounds into a carbon removal company

LOS ANGELES, May 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, XPRIZE Carbon Removal announced the top 20 finalists in its US$100 million global competition, with Captura named among the successful companies. With more than 1,300 teams from 88 countries competing, this cohort of top 20 innovators represent some of the most promising carbon removal solutions on the planet. Captura’s inclusion on the list – one of only four ocean-based solutions – highlights the great potential of its Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere via the ocean at a climate-relevant scale.

>> In Other News: Gevo's Verity and ClearFlame Announce Transportation Decarbonization Collaboration

XPRIZE Carbon Removal is a four-year competition to find scalable solutions that can capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere or oceans and sequester it durably and sustainably. Teams were evaluated across three key areas – operations, sustainability, and cost. To win the US$50 million grand prize, teams must demonstrate their ability to execute a substantial demonstration that approaches the competition’s goal of removing 1,000 net tonnes of CO2 in the final year of the competition, and a viable pathway to reaching megatonne scale in the coming years and eventually gigatonne scale with an understanding of their environmental and social impacts.

Captura’s advancement into the final stage of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition follows its previously granted US$1 million Milestone Award from XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation in April 2022, and underscores the company’s rapid progress in scaling its DOC technology. With the operational success of two pilot systems, a 1-ton-per-year and 100-ton-per-year system at the Port of Los Angeles, Captura is now working with international energy company Equinor to build a 1000-ton-per-year DOC pilot plant in Karsto, Norway, slated to commence operations late this year.

Additionally, Captura recently closed its Series A financing round, amassing a total of US$45.3 million, one of the highest Series A closings for a carbon removal company. These commercial milestones, in conjunction with the recognition from the XPRIZE Carbon Removal judges, positions Captura to become a major player in the carbon removal field as it increases its focus on deploying large-scale, commercial plants in the near future.

This achievement also affirms Captura’s dedication to sustainable and responsible deployment – a key criteria for XPRIZE Carbon Removal. Captura’s DOC technology has been designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective, while leaving minimal to zero impacts on the marine ecosystem. The process adds nothing new to the ocean and leaves no by-products behind; it simply removes excess CO2 from the ocean that the atmosphere then replaces. Captura’s practices for ensuring its ocean operations are safe are outlined in the company’s publicly available Ocean Health & MRV Protocol.

QUOTES:

Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE said: “For the world to effectively address greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removal is an essential element of the path to Net Zero. There’s no way to reverse humanity’s impact on the climate without extracting carbon from our atmosphere and oceans. We need a range of bold, innovative CDR solutions to manage the vast quantities of CO2 released into our environment and impacting our planet. The teams that have been competing for this Prize are all part of building a set of robust and effective solutions and our 20 teams advancing to the final stage of XPRIZE Carbon Removal will have an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to have a significant impact on the climate.”

Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director of XPRIZE Carbon Removal said: “This cohort of exceptional teams represents a diversity of innovations and solutions across a range of CDR pathways, and shows the significant progress the industry is making in a short period of time. Over the past three years, this competition has helped accelerate the pace of technology development for a whole new industry of high-potential solutions aimed at reversing climate change.”

Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura said: “We are deeply honored to be counted among this distinguished list of top 20 finalists in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition. This is a remarkable recognition from XPRIZE Carbon Removal and the Musk Foundation of the hard work and dedication of our team in delivering a scalable, sustainable, and low-cost climate solution. The sheer scale of the climate challenge means we are going to need as many feasible tools as possible, and we thank XPRIZE Carbon Removal, and all our fellow innovators, for their continued efforts in driving this important industry forward.”

About XPRIZE 

XPRIZE is an established global leader in designing, launching, and executing large scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. Our unique model democratizes innovation by incentivizing crowd-sourced, scientifically viable solutions to create a more equitable and abundant future for all. Donate, learn more or join a team at xprize.org. 

About Captura Corporation

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