Hawaiian start-up pioneers world’s first ‘ocean-assisted’ carbon capture plant

Once removed, the acid can be sold in its hydrochloric form while the neutralised water is returned to the ocean where it will naturally capture CO2.

‘When the excess acidity is removed from the ocean, it shifts how CO2 exists back to how it was pre-Industrial Revolution,’ says CEO Erik Millar. He’s referring to the transformation of carbonic acid to stable mineral carbon that will be stored on the ocean floor for a millennium.

The operation in Hawaii is something of a pilot with a view to eventually building larger facilities in Portugal and Dubai. It’s connected to a pre-existing desalination plant, which helps to save on the costs of pumping water, and its own technologies all run on solar power.

The current version of the tech can capture CO2 at a cost of $475 per ton, which is lower than any existing air capture enterprise globally. More importantly though, it has given investors confidence in the concept of ocean carbon capture and electrolysis.

According to the team, the next plant is being designed to capture 5,000 tons of CO2 per year and will operate at a cost lower than $200 per ton of emissions.

In the grand scheme of things, the IPCC states that we need to remove around six billion tons of carbon a year by 2050 to avoid devastating climate impacts.

Meanwhile, the climate capture industry is only in its infancy, meaning that projects are one successful pilot away from potentially taking off in a big way. Let’s hope things pan out that way here.

As for Heimdal’s internal goals, Millar declares: ‘We’re projecting that we’re going to be capturing 5 million tons per year within three years.’ Impressive stuff.