Steve Oldham
Chief Executive Officer, Captura. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executiveoperatorLinkedIn ↗capturacorp.com ↗
Oldham previously served as CEO of direct air capture pioneer Carbon Engineering, where he raised over $100 million before its acquisition by Occidental Petroleum. Before moving into carbon dioxide removal, he spent more than two decades in senior executive roles in aerospace and robotics at MDA.
1shows
1appearances
18statements
2resolved
1supported
0contradicted
50%fully supported
Everything Steve Oldham said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
CDR market will overcome US policy retreat via international adoption
“I think we will. And I think we'll get past this current challenge with the US. Because the rest of the world is looking at it as an opportunity for them.”
Captura's direct ocean capture system runs on intermittent or curtailed energy
“Direct air capture typically requires a continuous level of power. We've designed our system to work with very intermittent and even curtailed energy for the majority, if not potentially all, of our energy use.”
Captura's carbon capture process adds zero new material to the ocean
“So our process adds nothing to the ocean. We do not put any new material into the ocean whatsoever. The only thing we do is take out The CO two.”
Captura testing shows water outflow has no detrimental marine effect
“We grow marine life in our outflow at various concentrations to confirm that we are having no detrimental effect. We model how our Outflow plume of water rapidly disseminates into the wider ocean and validate that within a very small distance from the outflow,…”
Captura logs hundreds of operational hours without hardware degradation
“We've got hundreds of hours of continuous operation with no degradation.”
Captura targets 2028 for its first operational commercial plant
“So, we're targeting twenty-twenty-eight to be in operation with our first commercial plant.”
Captura's first plant may blend project finance, equity, and partnerships
“It may end up being a combination of project finance and equity type finance, maybe a partnership.”
Tech giants back CDR to secure future low-cost capacity
“There are companies like Microsoft, Frontier, and others that are seeking to create a market and build a supplier base. I see those companies providing the leadership in the market. They're doing it for good reasons for themselves as well. Securing a first rig…”
Policymakers will not regulate CDR until feasibility is proven independently
“I, I've always felt that no policy maker is going to establish a policy that's not feasible because then it just comes back to bite them. So it's on us as the CDR industry to demonstrate that we're feasible and cost effective.”
Oldham: Captura built its ocean carbon removal pilot in 70 days
“The team had built the pilot, commissioned it, got it operating in just 70 days.”
Captura solved membrane fouling using proprietary chemical backwashing
“We developed a backwashing mechanism. So we'd actually regularly wash the membranes using the chemicals that we produced in the process, and that eliminated the fouling problem.”
Captura's 100-ton pilot scale was dictated by garage floor space
“Physical sizing of the scale up was decided by the physical area inside that roll up garage. We hired a wonderful pilot engineer from Caltech. And I remember the first time I went into that garage after she joined, she had marked out on the floor where all the…”
Membrane contactor supply chain issues delayed Captura's pilot by months
“The technology that we were using at the time, membrane contactors, it was difficult to operate and the supply chain was challenging for us. So we actually went through two suppliers, which delayed everything there in setting up the barge and getting to the en…”
Captura raised $47M in Series A financing
“So we raised what turned out to be eventually forty seven million dollars in our series A.”
Captura's eight strategic corporate investors include Aramco and Maersk
“And we actually now have eight strategic partners who are investors. So we have a couple of energy companies in Equinor and Aramco. We have three renewable energy companies, NE, EDP, and National Grid. We have what we love to call our team Japan. Japan has a l…”
Meeting Equinor safety standards would have delayed Captura's pilot a year
“Some of the technology that we were using did not conform to the safety standards that they correctly have at that facility. So we had a choice to either make sort of fundamental changes to the technologies supply chain to get to that safety level that was req…”
Captura signed its first carbon removal offtake deal in March
“We signed our first offtake contract in March and are in negotiation with several others at the moment.”
First commercial plant is hardest startup hurdle due to perceived risk
“One of the hardest things, and one of the many hard things in a startup, is once you have your technology working at a level that you believe to be adequate, is taking that technology out and building your first commercial plant. Because the perception of risk…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Steve's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 GREEN BLUEPRINTLEDGER | Chief Executive Officer, Captura | 1 | 18 | 50% 1/2 | full record on the Green Blueprint → |