SeaO₂ Featured in Economist Impact: Harnessing the Ocean for Carbon Removal
SeaO₂ Featured in Economist Impact: Harnessing the Ocean for Carbon Removal
We are grateful to Economist Impact for featuring SeaO₂ in its recent article on the role of the ocean in carbon removal and the growing potential of Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technologies.
As the world continues to fall short of climate targets, it is becoming increasingly clear that emissions reductions alone will not be enough. Alongside rapid decarbonisation, we must also remove carbon dioxide that has already accumulated in the atmosphere.
The ocean already plays a central role in regulating Earth’s climate, having absorbed around 30% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Ocean-based carbon removal approaches aim to enhance this natural process by accelerating the ocean’s ability to exchange carbon with the atmosphere.
At SeaO₂, we are developing Direct Ocean Capture, a technology that removes dissolved CO₂ directly from seawater. Because the ocean and atmosphere exist in chemical equilibrium, removing carbon from seawater enables the ocean to absorb additional CO₂ from the air.
As our founder and CEO Ruben Brands shared in the article, “It’s important for us to prove that our approach is safe for the ocean, and won’t cause additional harm, which requires lots of modelling and monitoring.”
That principle is central to how we work. Our system uses electrodialysis to separate seawater into acid and base streams. The acid is used to release dissolved CO₂ from seawater so it can be captured, while the base is used to neutralise the water before it is safely returned to the ocean. The treated seawater can then naturally absorb more CO₂ from the atmosphere.
But scaling ocean-based carbon removal is not only about technical performance. It is also about responsible deployment, scientific credibility, and public trust.
As Ruben noted, “We have to communicate very well to get the public support that is needed for a technique like this.” As SeaO₂ advances its pilot activities in the Netherlands, transparent stakeholder engagement, open dialogue, and strong scientific monitoring will remain core to our approach.
The article also highlights the importance of robust monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems. For high-quality carbon removal to scale, rigorous certification frameworks are essential. SeaO₂ is working with leading partners to help ensure that carbon removal is quantified accurately and credibly, including a full accounting of operational emissions.
Looking ahead, policy will also play a major role in enabling scale. As Ruben said in the article, “In the future, integration of high-quality CDR into the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme would make sense, and would make a big difference for a lot of companies.” Creating strong demand signals and supportive policy pathways will be essential for helping promising CDR solutions reach meaningful climate impact.
We thank Economist Impact for shining a light on the emerging ocean-based carbon removal space and for recognising the importance of responsible innovation in this field.
At SeaO₂, we believe that addressing climate change will require both deep emissions reductions and durable carbon removal. The ocean has a critical role to play, and we are committed to helping unlock that potential in a way that is grounded in science, transparency, and care for the ocean.
