24th November 2023

America's first commercial Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility is unveiled

A new direct air capture (DAC) facility developed by California-based startup Heirloom uses limestone rocks to pull already-emitted CO2 from Earth's atmosphere.

Credit: Heirloom

Direct air capture (DAC) is a potentially game-changing development in the battle against climate change. This nascent and innovative technology works by extracting carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, directly from the atmosphere. Unlike traditional methods that focus on cutting emissions at their source – such as equipment retrofitted to smokestacks – DAC targets the CO2 already present in the air, creating "negative" emissions and a way to lower atmospheric carbon levels.

Heirloom, a pioneering California-based startup, has just taken a significant leap in this field. Their newly unveiled commercial DAC facility employs a novel technique based on rocks that naturally absorb CO2, making it a more sustainable and environmentally friendly option.

The process involves using limestone – an abundant, easy-to-source and inexpensive material – to draw in CO2 from ambient air. A kiln uses renewable energy to heat the limestone and extract CO2, leaving a mineral powder that is thirsty to absorb more CO2. This powder is then spread on vertically stacked trays, where it acts like a sponge, pulling CO2 from the air. Once saturated with CO2, the material is returned to the kiln, the CO2 is extracted, and the process begins again. Captured CO2 is safely and permanently stored underground, or embedded in concrete.

Located in Tracy, California, the new facility is the first in the United States to capture CO2, permanently sequester it, and fulfil commercial removal purchases. Fully powered by clean energy – supplied locally by Ava Community Energy – its capture capacity is up to 1,000 tons of CO2 per year and will deliver net removals to early, catalytic buyers of Heirloom's CO2 removal credits, which includes Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, and Klarna. Rapid scaling up of DAC could mean over a billion tons being removed annually by 2035.

The facility is being operated consistent with Heirloom's principles for responsible deployment of carbon removal – which include commitments that none of the removed CO2 will be used for enhanced oil recovery and no equity will be granted to companies whose core business is the production of oil and gas.

Heirloom formally unveiled its project at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this month, attended by Jennifer Granholm (the U.S. Secretary of Energy), Eleni Kounalakis (Lieutenant Governor of California) and other figures from industry and government, along with community members.

"Heirloom Carbon Technologies, right here in Tracy, California, is the blueprint for how America can beat climate change," said Granholm, speaking at the official unveiling ceremony.

"California continues to lead the world toward a clean energy future," said Kounalakis. "With the opening of Heirloom's facility, California is the first state in the nation where CO2 will be permanently and durably removed from the atmosphere through direct air capture and the first among nations to store atmospheric CO2 in concrete, supporting construction projects across the state. As a California-born company, Heirloom has helped us achieve an incredible milestone that further cements our state as a global climate leader and brings us closer to achieving our goal of carbon neutrality by 2045."

"This first commercial DAC facility is the closest thing on Earth that we have to a time machine, because it can turn back the clock on climate change by removing carbon dioxide that has already been emitted into our atmosphere," said Heirloom's CEO and Co-Founder, Shashank Samala. "The capacity of Heirloom's limestone-based technology to capture CO2 from the air has gone from 1 kilogram of CO2 up to one million, or 1,000 metric tons, in just over two years. We owe it to every climate-vulnerable citizen to continue to deploy our technology at the urgent pace required to reach billion-ton scale and beyond in time to stop the worst of climate change."

Indeed, this project underscores the incredible speed at which Heirloom's technology and business has developed. Just two years ago, the company began conducting experiments in the lab to capture grams of CO2 in a Petri dish. Since then, it has become one of the world's leading DAC companies. Heirloom raised $53 million in Series A funding in 2022, backed by leading climate investors, such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Then in February 2023, Heirloom and CarbonCure pioneered the world's first-ever demonstration of DAC-to-concrete storage – now being used at the Tracy facility. In August, Heirloom and other partners were selected for a megaton-scale DAC project under the Biden Administration's DAC Hub program, with eligibility for up to $600 million in federal funding for a facility in Louisiana. And in September, Heirloom and Microsoft announced one of the largest CO2 removal deals to date, with Microsoft agreeing to purchase up to 315,000 metric tons of CO2 removal from Heirloom over a 10+ year period.

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