Technology

Our Atmosphere

CO₂ removal is a necessity

By mid century, we’ll need to remove billions of tons each year – equivalent to 10-20% of today’s annual global emissions – if we want to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C. Even if emissions stopped tomorrow, the CO₂ that’s already in the atmosphere will take thousands of years to dissipate – all the while the planet will continue to warm. We need to permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, and Direct Air Capture is the best solution available to do this today.

Our process

Designed for scale, engineered for impact

We use limestone, one of the world’s most abundant and inexpensive minerals, to capture CO₂ directly from the atmosphere, and then permanently and safely store the CO₂ underground or in materials like concrete.

Read our DAC whitepaper

Read our CO₂ STORAGE whitepaper

How our Direct Air Capture system works

Using limestone like a sponge

Limestone is made up of calcium oxide and CO₂. When CO₂ is removed from limestone, the remaining calcium oxide acts like a sponge – absorbing CO₂ so it can return to its natural limestone state. Our technology accelerates this natural property of limestone, reducing the time it takes to absorb CO₂ from years to just 3 days.

Removing CO₂ from limestone

We heat limestone mineral powder in a renewable-energy powered kiln to remove the CO₂. Our partners then permanently and safely sequester this CO₂ in deep geological reservoirs, or in long-lasting materials like concrete.

Soaking up CO₂ from the atmosphere

Once the CO₂ is removed, we spread this mineral powder onto vertically-stacked trays and “treat” it to optimize its ability to uptake CO₂ in different environmental conditions.

Repeating the process

Like repeatedly wringing a sponge, we loop this limestone mineral powder through our system to continuously suck CO₂ from the atmosphere – a cyclic process that not only lowers costs but also reduces how much limestone must be mined.

Our Technical Advantage

The fastest path to low-cost Direct Air Capture

We will remove CO₂ from the air at increasingly lower costs as our technology scales, allowing us to meaningfully impact the climate problem.

Low-cost inputs

Making up 4% of the Earth’s surface and costing as little as $10 a ton, limestone is more abundant, far less expensive, and easier to source than custom engineered materials.

Modular

Our carbon removal facilities are built for simple, mass manufacturing and have independent components and processes that can be optimized over time.

Learning from every ton

We constantly collect data to refine and optimize our CO₂ uptake rate – further increasing our output and reducing cost.

Our facility

America’s first commercial DAC facility

In a world first for Direct Air Capture technology, our facility in Tracy, California, is capturing CO₂ from the atmosphere which is then embedded permanently in concrete. Working with our partner CarbonCure, this CO₂-enriched concrete is laid in the foundations of buildings and structures, with the added benefit of creating stronger concrete.

We’re also proud to be implementing a community governance model, which will gather stakeholder input on financial and programmatic investments into Tracy and San Joaquin County community organizations beginning in Q1 of 2024.