Calcarea has taken top honours at this year’s edition of The Captain’s Table, the maritime startup pitch competition held during Hong Kong Maritime Week and broadcast by Splash. The decarbonisation-focused company impressed judges with a shipboard carbon-capture concept that turns CO₂ into bicarbonate ions while vessels are underway.
The startup’s system uses accelerated limestone weathering inside custom-built reactors, developed from more than a decade of research at Caltech and USC. Limestone is loaded in port and reacts with exhaust CO₂ at sea, creating a stable form of carbon stored as bicarbonate in the ocean. Crucially, the process removes the need for ships to offload captured carbon ashore — a key operational hurdle for most onboard carbon-capture proposals.
The Captain’s Table is one of the industry’s most recognised pitch platforms for maritime and logistics startups. Finalists present to a panel of senior industry figures and investors, who assess business potential, scalability and sector impact.
This year’s finalists included three decarbonisation entries — BioBright, Calcarea and Enki Marine — as well as corrosion-management specialist qualiTEAS, safety technology firm Zeal, and route-optimisation provider Amphitrite. BioBright also secured the public vote for its algae-based system that helps ports monitor air and water quality, detect emissions, and identify oil spills, while potentially cutting regulatory penalties by over $1m per port each year.
As winner, Calcarea receives $30,000 in prize funding plus £25,000 in legal services from long-time partner HFW. The finalists will also be considered for up to $50,000 in follow-on investment from Portline Group.
