Amsterdam-based startup Brineworks has raised $2.2 million (€2 million) in a funding round led by venture capital firm Pale Blue Dot to advance its innovative Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology.
This technology is expected to significantly reduce the cost of producing e-fuel feedstocks and support decarbonization in industries like maritime and aviation.
Brineworks has developed a seawater electrolysis technology that sustainably extracts carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from the ocean, a process that is crucial for large-scale e-fuel production.
The startup’s recent advancements in seawater electrolyzers have lowered CO2 extraction costs to under $100 per ton, a significant improvement compared to the $230–$630 per metric ton range associated with Direct Air Capture (DAC), as per the International Energy Agency (IEA).
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Gudfinnur Sveinsson, co-founder and CEO of Brineworks, emphasized the limitations of current CO2 capture technologies, which are either unsustainable, too small in scale, or prohibitively expensive.
“Brineworks offers an alternative that is sustainable, scalable, and cost-effective, making e-fuel scale-up for the maritime and aviation industries a real possibility,” he said.
The company’s dual-output approach, where electrolyzers are used to not only extract CO2 efficiently but also to produce green hydrogen at a low cost, creates a sustainable energy system capable of operating independently of traditional energy grids and geopolitical constraints related to fossil fuels.
Hampus Jakobsson, General Partner at Pale Blue Dot, expressed confidence in Brineworks’ potential, saying, “What if any nation in the world could make sustainable oil from renewable electricity and seawater alone? We think Brineworks found the key to that.”
The new funding will accelerate Brineworks’ technical development and support the launch of its first pilot project.
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