Capture6 Launches Project Tortuga to Tackle Brine and Carbon in Perth

Perth’s water security faces a stark reality: inflows into local dams have plummeted from 420 gigaliters annually before the 1970s to just 76 gigaliters since 2010. With industry consuming 46% of the state’s allocated water, the pressure to optimize existing desalination processes has intensified. Project Tortuga, supported by the federal Carbon Capture Technologies Program, aims to bridge this gap by processing the concentrated byproduct left behind by desalination plants, which currently discard over 950 gigaliters of brine nationwide each year.

The facility utilizes standard industrial equipment, allowing Capture6 to scale operations through replication rather than custom redesigns. By integrating directly into partner sites, the company intends to convert brine into usable water while simultaneously removing carbon. According to CEO Ethan Cohen-Cole, the data gathered in Perth will provide industrial partners the necessary evidence to deploy these systems at scale. Following the launch, the company is also nearing completion of Project Monarch in Southern California, which is expected to begin operations in early 2027 to manage brine for the Palmdale Water District.