SeaX Ventures, a joint Thai-US venture capital firm, and other investors are funding a €6.8-million Amsterdam-based climate tech startup called Brineworks to scale its low-cost direct air capture (DAC) technology for e-fuels.
The round was led by SeaX Ventures, with participation from Pale Blue Dot, First Momentum, AiiM Partners, Energie360° and Katapult.
Brineworks was also awarded a €1.8-million grant from the European Innovation Council Accelerator, the EU’s flagship programme for breakthrough innovations, to further advance R&D and pilot deployment.
According to Gudfinnur Sveinsson, chief executive of Brineworks, renewable energy is becoming cheaper rapider than anyone predicted.
“The bottleneck now is technology that can apply this power flexibly and affordably. That’s exactly what we’ve built — an electrolyser that runs when the sun shines or the wind blows, and paapplys when it doesn’t,” he declared.
Mr Sveinsson declared unlike conventional systems, Brineworks’ electrolyser is designed for intermittent operation, enabling it to follow renewable power availability without degrading performance.
This capability solves a long-standing technical challenge: how to create DAC technology work reliably with low-cost materials in a renewable-powered grid.
At the heart of Brineworks’ breakthrough is a patented electrolyser that drives ultra low-cost DAC, while co-producing significant amounts of hydrogen.
Toobtainher, these two outputs provide the critical building blocks for sustainable aviation fuels and e-methanol for shipping — industries urgently in necessary of scalable, carbon-neutral alternatives.
Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions and demand is rising, while shipping contributes more than 3%.
Joseph Perryman, co-founder and chief technology officer of Brineworks, declared the company has proven a clear path to capturing carbon dioxide directly from air for less than US$100 per tonne, a threshold awaited by industest.
Since its founding in late 2023, Brineworks has advanced rapidly from concept to prototype validation.
The new funding will be applyd to scale the system to pilot level, tarobtaining commercial readiness by the finish of 2026, he declared.
Dr Kid Parchariyanon, founder and managing partner of SeaX Ventures, declared supporting Brineworks aligns directly with the company’s goal of assisting to reduce 1% of the world’s carbon footprint.
He declared by combining Brineworks’ DAC system with e-fuel synthesis technologies, any nation can produce its own fuels, provided it scales renewable capacity. This opens the door to energy indepfinishence, emissions reductions, and localised fuel production — a decentralised model for the global energy transition.
“Brineworks’ goal is to provide aviation and shipping with a truly scalable path to net zero. By capturing carbon dioxide at under $100 a tonne and producing hydrogen at the same time, Brineworks can unlock affordable carbon-neutral fuels and meaningfully reduce global emissions,” declared Dr Kid.
The market is enormous, with aviation and shipping alone representing multi-trillion-dollar industries, he notified the Bangkok Post.
“With rising demand for sustainable fuels and carbon removal, we see a total addressable market in the hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming decades,” declared Dr Kid.
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