What is the name of your organization?
Aquelys Solutions
What is the name of your solution?
Aquelys Marine Carbon Removal
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Catalyzing ocean-based climate solutions through electrochemical systems for CO₂ removal, deacidification, and clean hydrogen generation.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Lexington, MA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
USA
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
—
What specific problem are you solving?
To meet the IPCC’s 1.5°C target, the world must remove up to 10 gigatons of CO₂ annually by 2050. Current methods, such as afforestation and DAC, are constrained by land, cost, and durability. Meanwhile, the ocean, which absorbs approximately 25% of anthropogenic CO₂, is acidifying at an unprecedented rate, threatening fisheries, marine biodiversity, and the livelihoods of over 3 billion people worldwide.
Ocean-based CDR offers vast potential. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) can boost the ocean’s natural buffering capacity, while Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF)- a nature-based approach - stimulates phytoplankton blooms that fix carbon biologically. Yet, despite its promise, OIF’s additionality and long-term impacts remain under debate due to limited control, study, and monitoring at scale.
Aquelys addresses this by developing precision-controlled electrochemical systems that deliver bioavailable iron and alkalinity to seawater, supporting both OAE and OIF pathways. Our approach enables field-scale research while enhancing carbon drawdown, restoring pH balance, and generating clean hydrogen. We target vulnerable coastal regions where acidification, fishery decline, and climate risks overlap, advancing ocean-based climate solutions grounded in science, stewardship, and scalable technology.
What is your solution?
Aquelys develops modular electrochemical systems that enhance the ocean’s natural ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Our technology enables two powerful processes: Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) and Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF), using an efficient, solar-powered electrochemical system.
By using one of Earth’s most abundant minerals (iron) as a micronutrient and generating alkalinity through seawater electrolysis, our system stimulates phytoplankton growth while increasing the ocean’s capacity to absorb and store CO₂. The platform also produces clean hydrogen as a valuable byproduct. Compared to current carbon removal methods, our approach can achieve removals at up to 100 times lower cost, with significantly reduced land and energy demands.
Each unit is designed for coastal deployment, powered by solar energy, and equipped with onboard, real-time monitoring tools to track ecosystem conditions and carbon uptake. This enables precision dosing, adaptive control, and actionable data- solving key measurement and verification challenges in ocean-based CDR.
Aquelys provides both a deployable climate solution and a research platform, accelerating the study and responsible scale-up of marine carbon removal.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution is designed to directly serve the global research and regulatory community working to advance marine-based carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), particularly for Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) and Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE). These users, including ocean scientists, permitting agencies, and policy leaders, are currently underserved due to the lack of safe, precise, and field-deployable systems for studying mCDR approaches at climate-relevant scales.
Aquelys fills this gap by providing a solar-powered, electrochemical platform capable of controlled deployments in the high seas, where OIF is most effective but where field research has been limited due to technical, legal, and political barriers. Our system features real-time monitoring and data outputs to support science-based regulation under frameworks such as the London Protocol.
While not designed for localized, coastal community deployment, our solution contributes to global ocean health, food system resilience, and long-term climate stability (factors that affect billions of people). By enabling rigorous R&D, Aquelys empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions about ocean-based climate strategies and helps ensure that emerging solutions are equitable, effective, and ecologically responsible.