The Scene A demonstration plant in the high desert north of Los Angeles. A pipe that used to carry a problem - thick, salty brine bound for a 100-acre evaporation pond - now feeds a machine that hands back two things at once: drinking water, and carbon pulled out of the sky. Nobody is throwing anything away anymore.
Desalination has a dirty secret. For every liter of fresh water it squeezes out of the sea, it leaves behind brine - water so salty it is expensive to get rid of and ugly to look at. Most plants pump it into ponds or back into the ocean. Capture6 looked at that waste stream and saw a raw material.
Founded in 2021 by economist Ethan Cohen-Cole and technologist Luke Shors, Capture6 builds a modular system that bolts onto desalination and water-treatment facilities. It converts the leftover brine into a solvent that grabs carbon dioxide straight out of the air and locks it away - permanently. In the same motion, it recovers extra fresh water and produces valuable green chemicals. Two of the planet's hardest problems, water scarcity and atmospheric carbon, solved by the same pipe.
*Target at the Palmdale Water District Project Monarch facility.
Traditional direct air capture runs an energy-hungry, multi-step gauntlet to pull CO2 from the air. Capture6 takes a shortcut: the waste brine becomes the solvent, and the carbon mineralizes in a single step.
Salty waste from desalination, normally costly to dump.
➞Electrochemistry turns brine into a CO2-hungry solution.
➞Atmospheric carbon mineralizes and is stored for good.
➞Out comes fresh water, green chemicals & carbon credits.
Recover water. Remove carbon. Multiply value.
The pitch to a water utility is not charity - it is economics. The Palmdale Water District projects savings of roughly 20-40% over a facility's lifetime, plus the disappearance of up to 100 acres of brine ponds.
Figures are publicly stated targets/estimates from Capture6 and Palmdale Water District, not guaranteed outcomes.
A modular system that turns saltwater and brine into freshwater while capturing and permanently storing atmospheric CO2.
Transforms costly waste brine into a CO2-mineralizing solvent in a single step - retiring brine ponds and disposal bills.
Produces valuable green chemicals and extra freshwater for facilities, stacking multiple revenue streams.
Permanent, measurable CO2 removal sold as environmental credits, aimed at million-ton-scale installations.
A Harvard-trained historian turned economist with 25 years across academia and entrepreneurship. He frames carbon removal as an incentives problem - which is exactly why Capture6's model is designed to pay for itself.
Brings a track record in technology, entrepreneurship, fundraising and academia. Together the pair built Capture6 on the bet that no single fix solves the climate crisis - so they aimed for one that scales.
They incorporated Capture6 as a public benefit corporation - legally bound to its water and climate mission, not just its shareholders.
In March 2025, Capture6 closed a $27.5 million Series A and project funding round, advised by Rothschild & Co. The capital pushes its core water-recovery and carbon-removal projects from demonstration toward commercial scale.
Earlier, the California Energy Commission awarded Capture6 over $8 million in grants - including the largest grant in its funding round.
Global collaboration to deploy CO2-removal facilities with integrated water management at industrial scale.
On the Pure Water Antelope Valley demo facility - targeting zero brine discharge and 20-40% lifetime savings.
Over $8M in grants - including the largest in its round - to advance the technology.
Beyond California, the pipeline reaches Western Australia (Project Wallaby), New Zealand, and South Korea - all places where water stress and carbon goals collide.
Retire evaporation ponds and ocean discharge; recover more freshwater from the same intake.
Co-locate carbon removal with existing water operations and turn a cost center into revenue.
Purchase permanent, measurable carbon-removal credits backed by real infrastructure.
Back at that desert plant, the pond never gets dug.
The brine that once needed 100 acres of land to disappear into the air now leaves as drinking water, green chemicals, and carbon that will never warm the planet again. The pipe that carried a problem carries products. That is the whole trick - and Capture6 is busy repeating it across four countries.