Brineworks, a climate-tech startup, just raised $5.87 million in seed funding in hopes of bringing feedstocks for carbon-neutral alternative fuels to market for airlines and cargo ships by the end of 2026.
The Amsterdam-based startup claims it has rapidly developed a low-cost, patented technology over the past two years that uses saltwater to pull CO2 from the atmosphere, which creates significant amounts of hydrogen in the process. The system, known as electrolysis, produces hydrogen (H2) and CO2 that can be stored and used as feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and e-methanol for shipping. CEO Gudfinnur Sveinsson told Fortune in an exclusive interview that the new funding will be used to scale the system to pilot level, targeting a commercial-ready product by the end of next year.
“What this (funding) is allowing us to do is really to take our technology to the next stage,” Sveinsson said. “Getting to those very low costs in direct air capture will be key to both extract historical emissions out of the atmosphere and store them permanently, but also to scale up these low-cost energy mediums like e-fuels for shipping and aviation.”
Sveinsson said Brineworks’ technology is designed for intermittent operation, allowing it only to run on the “cheapest electricity sources available”: solar and wind. This helps drive down costs and differentiates his business model from competitors, he said.
