Capture6 has officially launched its Project Tortuga in Western Australia, starting operations that will recover freshwater from brine while capturing atmospheric CO2. 

The company has installed and is running eight containerized units in a single integrated system at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct near the city of Perth. 

This deployment will serve to generate operating data that will lay the groundwork for Capture6’s first commercial facilities.  

Capture6’s water recovery process turns desalination and industrial brine into freshwater while also capturing carbon dioxide from the air. Project Tortuga will help boost Perth’s freshwater reserves, and it will contribute towards the country’s net zero by 2050 goal. 

Designed to run at a scale that mirrors commercial operations, Project Tortuga will deliver insights on performance, energy use, and product quality that will give partners in water-intensive, hard-to-abate sectors a clearer understanding of what this technology can achieve.

In Perth, water inflows into dams have dropped from an average of 420 gigaliters (GL) a year before the mid-1970s to about 76 GL a year since 2010, according to the Water Corporation, leaving the city to depend on desalination for around half of the supply of its drinking water. 

Dan Bull MLA, Member for Maylands, shared, “Perth’s freshwater reserves and inflows now receive much less of the water they once did, and desalination is part of the suite of measures the WA Government is implementing to sustain water for the future.” 

“Project Tortuga shows how we can get more out of every liter we desalinate while tackling climate change at the same time,” he added.

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