{"id":167745,"date":"2025-09-17T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=167745"},"modified":"2025-09-11T11:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:30:39","slug":"direct-ocean-capture-a-potential-pathway-to-certified-low-carbon-co2-for-e-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/direct-ocean-capture-a-potential-pathway-to-certified-low-carbon-co2-for-e-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Direct Ocean Capture: A Potential Pathway to Certified Low-Carbon CO2 for E-Fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

As marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) technologies continue to advance, there\u2019s emerging interest in using CO2 from direct ocean capture (DOC)<\/a> as a feedstock for E-fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direct Ocean Capture and the Path to Low-Carbon E-Fuels<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Sherry Lippiatt, Partnerships Lead, [C]Worthy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

E-fuels are synthetic fuels produced by combining captured CO2 with green hydrogen, creating a drop-in replacement for fossil fuels in sectors that are hard to electrify, like aviation and shipping. They offer a potential path to decarbonization using existing infrastructure, but their climate benefit depends on access to low-carbon CO2 and abundant renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the EU\u2019s Renewable Energy Directive (RED<\/a>), eligible CO2 sources for E-fuels include CO2 captured from the air, biogenic sources, and certain industrial emissions. Ocean-based sources like DOC aren’t explicitly included, unless surface ocean CO2 removal is interpreted as equivalent to \u201cfrom the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that interpretation is not straightforward. DOC is a multi-step process wherein the removal of CO2 from a stream of seawater triggers natural air-sea gas exchange to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere as it replenishes the removal from the ocean. This replenishment happens in the open ocean and can take weeks to years, in some cases over a decade. So, accurately accounting for DOC\u2019s climate benefit requires calculating how much atmospheric CO2 is actually drawn down by the ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts to map the global efficiency<\/a> of DOC reveal variation in CO2 uptake over space and time that range from 100% to as low as 50% over a 15 year timespan. These estimates of CO2 drawdown from DOC deployments are derived by computational models of ocean physics, chemistry, and biology that simulate how carbon is moving into, out of, and through the ocean. The reduction in atmospheric CO2 is calculated by running these models both with and without the removal of CO2 from seawater and looking at the difference in CO2 drawdown between these simulations. This model-based approach is mandated by carbon removal credit registry protocols (e.g., Isometric). But, importantly, no equivalent protocol or certification process yet exists for DOC-sourced CO2 used to produce E-fuels. This is a gap that could be filled by the modeling tools that are already being developed for supporting carbon removal for carbon crediting purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certification, Policy, and Market Challenges Ahead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When the extracted CO2 is safely sequestered in underground reservoirs, rather than utilized for other industrial projects, DOC presents the potential to deliver truly durable carbon removal. But the current market for mCDR credits – especially at the high price-point characteristic of emerging technologies – is relatively small. E-fuels, on the other hand, present a potentially larger and faster growing market, driven by RED in the EU and decarbonization strategies in the aviation and shipping sectors (developed by the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation and the International Maritime Organization, respectively). In regions with limited biomass and where industrial CO2 sources will eventually be phased out under RED, DOC could offer a cost-effective alternative to direct air capture for supplying feedstock CO2 to E-fuel production. And while the supply of CO2 is not the only, nor the largest constraint on the E-fuels market today, that calculus could change as the ramping up of E-fuel production drives down other production costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realizing DOC\u2019s potential for both mCDR and E-fuels will require the same levels of  science-based certification and regulatory clarity as carbon markets. As these markets evolve, trustworthy, transparent accounting of atmospheric CO2 removal is essential to ensure that claims of \u201clow carbon\u201d or \u201ccarbon neutral\u201d fuels reflect the actual climate benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sherry Lippiatt<\/a> is Partnerships Lead at [C]Worthy<\/a>, where she builds relationships across the mCDR industry. She has more than 15 years of experience across the ocean startup and government sectors, and holds a PhD in Ocean Science from UC Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) technologies continue to advance, there\u2019s emerging interest in using CO2 from direct ocean capture (DOC) as a feedstock for E-fuels. Direct Ocean Capture and the Path to Low-Carbon E-Fuels E-fuels are synthetic fuels produced by combining captured CO2 with green hydrogen, creating a drop-in replacement for fossil fuels in sectors that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":167764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"E-Fuels offer a potential path to decarbonization using existing infrastructure, but their climate benefit depends on access to low-carbon CO2 and abundant renewable energy","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[5842,10744,15905,15511,10743],"supplier":[26877],"class_list":["post-167745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-biomass","tag-carboncapture","tag-efuels","tag-greenhydrogen","tag-useco2","supplier-cworthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167745"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=167745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}