Zurich-based carbon removal company Climeworks revealed today its Generation 3 direct air capture (DAC) technology, providing “breakthrough” improvements in efficiency and performance, and forming a step in the company’s plan to scale up to megaton carbon removal capacity.

DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanent removal when combined with storage. According to the landmark 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change mitigation study, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total.

Founded in 2009 by Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks has focused to date on building its position as a leading DAC provider. In 2022, the company raised nearly $650 million in an equity funding round aimed at scaling its DAC capacity. Last month, Climeworks announced the start-up of “Mammoth,” the largest direct air capture plant in the world to date, with anticipated capability to remove up to 36,000 tons of CO2 per year from the atmosphere, and the company is participating in the development of three megaton hubs in the U.S. that were selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for public funding of more than $600 million.

The new Generation 3 technology uses novel structured sorbent materials replacing the packed filter beds used in previous technology generations. The new structures increase surface contact with CO2, reducing the time to capture the CO2 from the air, and substantially increasing the release of CO2 for storage when heated.

According to Climeworks, the new solution doubles CO2 capture capacity per module, halves energy consumption, and increases material lifetime, cutting costs by 50%.

Climeworks said that it aims to halve overall costs by 2030, and aims to achieve $250-to-$350 per ton captured and total costs of $400-to-$600 per ton net removal.

Generation 3 technology was implemented at full scale for the first time in June 2024 at Climeworks’ largest direct air capture testing facility in Switzerland. It will first be deployed in Louisiana as part of the megaton-scale Project Cypress DAC Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, with construction set to begin in 2026.

Jan Wurzbacher, Co-founder and Co-CEO said:

“Climeworks has always been committed to technology leadership. We were pioneers in the development of direct air capture technology and launched our first commercial facility in 2017. We operate the world’s largest commercial direct air capture plant, Orca, in Iceland, and have inaugurated a larger plant, Mammoth, ten times the size. In parallel, we have, over the past five years, been developing our Generation 3 technology. This development is based on real field data, enabling the scale-up to megaton removal capacities.”