Mitsubishi Electric and Finland’s VTT Establish Core Technology for Direct Ocean Capture

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) today announced that it has completed the core development of a direct ocean capture (DOC) system that removes CO₂ via seawater, working in collaboration with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., headquartered in Espoo, Finland and headed by CEO Kalle Härkki. Supported by verified system performance and accumulated experimental data, Mitsubishi Electric and VTT are accelerating their efforts toward early deployment and are actively seeking partners to advance the technology’s demonstration and commercialization.

Mitsubishi Electric places sustainability at the cornerstone of its management. The company is advancing comprehensive initiatives that extend beyond the boundaries of its existing business domains and organizational structures. These initiatives are aimed at creating synergistic value streams that drive growth while contributing to society and environmental stewardship (“Trade-On” activities). Within this framework, Mitsubishi Electric is pursuing the establishment of DOC as a key technology to support carbon neutrality and nature-positive outcomes.

DOC is one of the marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies that leverages the mechanism by which the ocean absorbs CO₂ due to differences in concentration between the atmosphere and ocean. By capturing dissolved inorganic carbon from seawater and lowering CO₂ concentrations in seawater, DOC promotes the uptake of CO₂ from the atmosphere into the ocean, thereby ultimately removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. Since CO₂ concentrations in seawater are approximately 140 times higher than those in the atmosphere (per unit volume), DOC is expected as a highly efficient and scalable approach for carbon removal and recovery.

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