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Bite-Size Climate Tech · Season 5 · E7
Brineworks: From “Magic Box” to Upgraded Suit
About this episode
What if the climate mission stays the same, but the technology gets a better suit?
When Joe Perryman first joined Bite-Size Climate Tech, Brineworks was described as a kind of “magic box in the ocean.” The mission was to use electrochemistry to produce useful climate feedstocks from saltwater.
Two years later, Joe returns with an evolved system. He explains that Brineworks has moved from a direct-ocean-capture concept toward a land-based direct air capture system built around a recirculating saltwater loop.
The core acid-and-base electrochemistry remains central: in Joe’s explanation, the base absorbs CO₂ and the acid releases it. Brineworks says the redesigned system can co-produce CO₂ and hydrogen while operating with low-cost intermittent renewable power.
The clearest initial commercial wedge discussed is synthetic fuels. E-fuel producers need both sustainable CO₂ and green hydrogen, and Brineworks positions itself as the feedstock hardware provider rather than the fuel producer.
But the episode is about more than one company’s technical pivot. It is also about a wider shift in climate tech: from “we should do this because it is sustainable” toward “it is sustainable, and it can increasingly make technical and commercial sense too.”
Joe also reflects on building and pivoting climate hardware, becoming a father, and the question of whether the next generation inherits a planet worse than the one we inherited or a better one.
Key takeaways
- Why Brineworks moved from direct ocean capture to direct air capture
- How the closed-loop saltwater concept works in plain English
- Why CO₂ and hydrogen matter together for e-fuels
- Where Brineworks sees itself in the synthetic-fuels value chain
- Why intermittent renewable power matters to the economics
- What Joe has learned from building and pivoting climate hardware
- Why becoming a father gave him a new reason to keep going
Guest
Joe Perryman
Co-Founder & CTO, Brineworks
Listen and watch
Visual note: Facility photographs are real Brineworks materials. CLI animated sequences are simplified educational illustrations based on Joe’s explanation. They are not engineering schematics or literal representations of Brineworks’ exact hardware or process configuration.