Mitsubishi Electric, VTT advance ocean carbon capture technology toward pilot scale
Mitsubishi Electric and Finland-based research organization VTT said they have advanced a Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology platform from laboratory-stage development toward pilot-scale validation as part of a collaboration launched in late 2024.
The project focuses on electrochemical carbon dioxide removal from seawater, an approach the organizations said could complement industrial decarbonization efforts and carbon capture strategies in sectors with difficult-to-eliminate emissions.
According to the companies, the technology temporarily acidifies seawater to release dissolved CO₂ in gaseous form for capture. The recovered carbon dioxide could then be directed either to carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems or used as an industrial feedstock for carbon capture and utilization (CCU) applications such as fuels and chemicals production.
The organizations said seawater contains significantly higher concentrations of inorganic carbon than air, making ocean-based carbon removal a potentially scalable option for long-term emissions management.
The project is being developed for potential integration with coastal industrial operations including desalination plants and power generation facilities where seawater intake and processing infrastructure already exists. The companies said using existing intake and pretreatment systems could reduce infrastructure costs and improve scalability.
In addition to carbon capture, the project is evaluating recovery of dissolved substances from seawater that could create additional process value streams and improve overall system economics.
Antti Arasto, vice president at VTT and project lead for the collaboration, said in a statement the companies have moved the technology from early-stage research toward validation and future demonstration planning in a relatively short timeframe.
Seiji Oguro, executive officer and vice president of Mitsubishi Electric’s Sustainability Innovation Group, added that the companies plan to continue expanding development partnerships as commercialization efforts progress.
According to the companies, various studies estimate that direct ocean capture technologies could eventually support carbon removal volumes reaching several gigatonnes annually if deployed at large scale.