Nov 19, 2025 · 30m · green-blueprint
Captura's high-stakes gamble
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The Green Blueprint, host Laura Pierpoint interviews Captura CEO Steve Oldham to explore the engineering innovations, operational pivots, and financing strategies required to commercialize direct ocean carbon capture technology.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 2.3 Guest disagreement 0.0 The hosts pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 21:15 Reframing hard decisions as simple choices
The guest briskly reframes the host's question about agonizing over the Hawaii move by stating the decision was trivial because no other option existed.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 11:51 Questioning demonstration design philosophyThe host presses on whether building complex batch testing infrastructure unnecessarily delayed commercial scaling relative to building a market-ready system immediately.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 25:15 Dismantling assumptions about early project financeThe guest contrasts mature asset classes like solar with unproven CDR tech to illustrate why project financiers refuse to lend without guaranteed offtake and proven scale.
The host holds their own ▶ 4:37 Breaking down the chemistry of ocean carbon captureThe host demonstrates deep scientific comprehension by explaining Henry's law, ocean-atmosphere equilibrium, and electrodialysis in detailed technical terms.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Core Science of Direct Ocean Capture | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host explains the core scientific principles of Henry's law, electrodialysis, and ocean equilibrium in scripted voiceover before bringing in the guest to elaborate on energy flexibility and ocean deacidification. | |
| Early Validation: Newport Beach Pilot and Membrane Fouling | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | The host poses informed questions regarding engineering trade-offs and startup tensions between rapid commercialization and thorough subsystem batch testing. | |
| Marine Ecological Impact, Permitting, and Outflow Testing | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | The host asks about marine ecological risks and permitting barriers. The guest explains how Captura meets California wastewater discharge standards and tests outflow plumes on local aquaculture. | |
| Strategic Fundraising and Assembling Global Industry Partners | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host explores the strategic rationale behind Captura's fundraising syndicate and the logistical pivot from Equinor's gas facility in Norway to Nelha in Hawaii. | |
| Demonstration Success and Scaling Towards 2028 Commercial Plants | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | The host digs into project capitalization structures, contrasting venture equity with non-dilutive debt. The guest outlines the difficulty of securing project finance for unproven first-of-a-kind plants. | |
| Carbon Market Dynamics, Corporate Buyers, and Policy Leadership | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host and guest discuss voluntary carbon market shifts, corporate demand from early adopters like Frontier and Microsoft, and international policy divergence. |
Statements from this episode (19)
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.”
CO2 is 150 times more concentrated in oceans than in air
“For one, it's easier to remove CO₂ from the ocean where it's a 150 times more concentrated.”
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 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'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 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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”