Equatic

Equatic is a carbon removal company that has developed an innovative technology to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) from seawater and the atmosphere while simultaneously producing carbon-negative hydrogen. The company's process, which was recognized as one of TIME Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023, uses electrolysis to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. This creates an acidic and an alkaline stream, with the alkaline stream used to trap CO2 in solid minerals and dissolved substances naturally found in oceans. The process ensures that the captured CO2 remains securely stored for over 100,000 years.

The company's technology amplifies the ocean's inherent ability to absorb and store massive amounts of carbon. Equatic's system is designed to measure carbon dioxide removal (CDR) within a closed system, using direct, in-plant, on-line, and on-stream sensors to record the rate and extent of CDR. This provides continuous, unambiguous data about operational performance and ensures accurate environmental impact monitoring.

In February 2024, Equatic announced plans to build the world's largest ocean-based CO2 removal plant in Tuas, Singapore, in partnership with Singapore's National Water Agency (PUB) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The USD 20 million demonstration plant, named Equatic-1, is expected to remove 3,650 metric tons of CO2 annually when fully operational. The plant will consist of individual modules, with the first module set to be commissioned in mid-2024, followed by nine additional modules to achieve the full scale of the demonstration plant.

Equatic aims to bring removal costs below USD 100 per ton by 2028 and plans to scale its technology to remove millions of tons of carbon annually. The company's long-term goal is to deploy its technology globally, with plans for a 109,500 ton per year plant to be commissioned in 2026.

Key customers and partnerships

Equatic has secured several notable partnerships and customers. Boeing has signed an agreement to purchase 2,100 metric tons of hydrogen from Equatic for use in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Additionally, Boeing has committed to purchasing 62,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits to offset its own climate pollution.

The company has also partnered with Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal project developer, to deploy demonstration units in Canada. As part of this collaboration, Equatic will deliver and install an electrolyzer unit at Deep Sky's pilot facility in Quebec in 2024, with a capacity to remove 365 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Equatic has entered into agreements with several companies for the purchase of carbon credits from its future commercial plants. The electronic payments company Stripe has previously paid for CO2 captured at Equatic's Los Angeles pilot plant while it was still part of UCLA, at a price of USD 1,370 per ton of carbon dioxide.