TRACY (E24): In a small town in California, a technology company is trying to combat climate change by using limestone as a sponge. This is significant, according to the US Secretary of Energy.
Published: Published:
December 9
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Out in nature, the process is slow. Slow, but steady, possibly over several years, as limestone absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere.
In a plant an hour east of San Francisco, the same thing happens in just three days.
Now, this development could be a key in the fight against global warming, according to US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
– This is significant, she emphasized at the unveiling of the facility a few weeks ago.
The superlatives were flying.
KASTET GLANS: USAs energiminister Jennifer M. Granholm (i midten) tokm turen til California for å være med på avdukingen av USAs første kommersielle anlegg for karbonfangst fra luft. Foto: Jason Henry / E24
“A historic moment,” said California’s lieutenant governor Eleni Koulanakis, while Granholm referred to the plant as “the recipe for how the US can combat climate change.”
“We see enormous potential in this technology and what it can do for the world. Other countries will be envious of the US because of this,” says the US Secretary of Energy.
Simple process
From the outside, the machine doesn’t appear particularly impressive. It’s a partially open, square box, covered with mesh and surrounded by pipes and vessels.
Inside, thousands of trays are stacked on top of each other, in rows and columns, twelve meters high. On each tray lies a thin, thin layer of mineral powder, made by heating up limestone and extracting CO₂.
After the carbon is removed, the powder craves more CO₂ and thus absorbs greenhouse gases from the air, almost like a sponge.
– It’s an incredibly, incredibly simple process, says Max Scholten.
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“Just let me die. Save yourself”
SHOWING AROUND: Max Scholten, head of commercialization at Heirloom, inside the plant in Tracy, California. Photo: Jason Henry / E24
He is head of commercialization at the company Heirloom, which is behind the technology.
Wearing a light blue protective helmet, he guides E24 around the plant, along with several American media.
– You can feel a light breeze blowing through the plant here. The wind contains CO₂, which flows over the trays, says Scholten.
Here, the carbon binds to the powder, and a mineral is formed, explains the commercialization chief further.
– It’s like saying we’re growing rocks, he says.
– You can actually see it when the powder is petrified; it forms almost like a crust on top, and looks a bit like a cookie when it bakes.
THIN LAYERS: The mineral powder on the trays attracts carbon from the air.
1 out of 4Photo: Jason Henry / E24
The reaction that occurs when CO₂ hits the powder has been thoroughly modeled by Heirloom, according to Max Scholten. That’s why they know exactly what’s happening at different stages of the process. The knowledge has been transferred to robots, which move around among the trays.
These machines carry out measurements and evaluate when the powder is saturated with CO₂. Then they transport the trays further, and the material is fed into an oven where the carbon is extracted again.
The automated process is repeated. Again and again. Around the clock.
Stored in concrete
The CO₂ is transported to a facility in Silicon Valley, where it is used in the production of concrete and thus permanently stored.
This provides additional value for concrete producers, according to CEO Robert Niven of the company CarbonCure, which is Heirloom’s storage partner.
The carbon makes the concrete stronger, he explains.
– It allows concrete producers to reduce costs because they need less cement to produce each cubic meter of concrete, says Niven.
PARTNER INWOKIG WITH: Robert Niven (in the middle) heads the company CarbonCure, which works on storing CO₂ in concrete. Photo: Jason Henry / E24
When Heirloom’s plant in Tracy is fully operational, in a few months, it will be able to capture a thousand kilograms of CO₂ per year.
It’s not a lot, but the amount is not the point, emphasizes Julio Friedman, chief scientist at the research company Carbon Direct. The point of this plant is to learn how to reduce costs and to grow, he elaborates.
– This is like the birth of a new species. There is nothing like it, says Friedman.
Traditionally, we extract CO₂ from the air using chemicals, explains the climate researcher.
– Here, stones are used, it’s a completely different approach. The fact that we have many ways to do this is good news, he says.
Thin reed
Julio Friedman is one of the leading experts in the US on so-called negative emissions, which means removing carbon we have already emitted into the atmosphere.
This is not a free pass to avoid cutting emissions. On the contrary. It’s more like a very thin reed.
Read more articles from Silicon Valley here.
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to remove several billion tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere by 2050, according to the UN’s climate panel.
This is in addition to enormous emission reductions and the restoration of land areas.
CUT THE BAND: Heirloom’s new plant was opened by US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm (in the middle), together with the company’s CEO Shashank Samala (left) and research director Noah McQueen (right). Photo: Jason Henry / E24
So far, several daring ideas have been launched to suck greenhouse gases out of the air, but the Swiss company Climeworks is probably the one that has come the furthest. In October 2021, they opened the world’s largest carbon capture machine in Iceland. The machine sucks CO₂ out of the air using large fans with a special filter. The greenhouse gas is then pumped deep into the ground and converted into stone.
One of the other veterans in the industry is the Canadian company Carbon Engineering, which is helping to build a massive facility in Texas, but in recent years a number of new companies have come on board.
Here are some examples:
E24 has written about the company Heimdal, founded by, among others, Norwegian Marcus Lima, which has developed a technology to clean the ocean of CO₂. Lima was recently featured on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list. The companies Ebb Carbon and Captura, both based in California, are working on similar projects to Heimdal. E24 has also previously mentioned Prometheus Fuels, which is located just outside of Silicon Valley. They extract CO₂ from the atmosphere to convert it into gasoline. The fuel is not yet commercially available, but the company Twelve is also working on making gasoline from the air, in addition to other products, such as sunglasses. The startup Living Carbon genetically modifies trees and plants to capture and store more CO₂ from the atmosphere. The company Charm has developed a technique using a special type of bio-oil to capture CO₂ from the air. Two other companies, Calcite and Parallel, work on similar approaches to Heirloom.
Great development
CEO Tito Jankowski of the accelerator program Accelerator program A program that helps startup companies grow faster by offering resources such as funding, mentoring, and education. AirMiners said that the development in recent years has been enormous.
– We have had 118 companies in carbon removal through our program, and together they have raised $93 million in capital and grants, says Jankowski.
– This is an entirely new industry and a growing movement to remove billions of tons of carbon from the air. This is real.
GREEN VISIONS: The entire process is powered by renewable energy, and Heirloom does not accept investments from actors in the oil industry. Photo: Jason Henry / E24
Critics point out that the technology is still extremely expensive and energy-intensive. In addition, many fear that the science can be used as an excuse to emit even more CO₂, and Carbon Engineering has been criticized for its collaboration with the oil industry.
CEO Shashank Samala of Heirloom emphasizes that their plant is powered by pure, renewable energy, and that they will build out the technology in a responsible manner.
– This means removing CO₂ without giving companies an excuse to emit more CO₂, and I want to be very clear about this, he says.
TOP CHIEF: Shashank Samala says he wishes Heirloom didn’t have to build the plant, but hopes it can contribute to combating climate change. Photo: Jason Henry / E24
This means that Heirloom does not enable the extraction of fossil fuels, Samala explains. They also do not accept investments from fossil companies, according to the CEO.
He refers to the plant as “the closest we come to a time machine”.
– Now we have to do this on a scale that is millions of times larger, he says.
Major customers
The goal is to extract one billion tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere by 2035 – around a fifth of today’s annual emissions in the USA.
Development is financed by the sale of carbon credits.
So far, Heirloom has sold climate quotas for over 270 million NOK to companies such as Alphabet, Meta, and H&M, while Microsoft has committed to buying 315,000 tons in carbon credits over ten years, which at today’s market prices corresponds to an amount over two billion NOK, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Here they cleanse the ocean of CO₂
The next step is the construction of a facility in Louisiana, in collaboration with several companies, including Climeworks. This machine is planned to remove a million tons of CO₂ from the air each year, and the project is supported with several billion NOK from the US government.
In the long run, Heirloom hopes to reduce costs to around a thousand NOK per ton. How much it costs today, they do not comment.
IMPRESSED: Climate researcher Julio Friedman believes it is essential that we manage to cleanse CO₂ from the atmosphere and believes this technology can help contribute. Photo: Jason Henry / E24
Climate researcher Julio Friedman has followed the company from the beginning, and he believes it is entirely possible for them to grow big.
– I think this technology has great potential. This is made of materials that are abundant on Earth, and they use well-known industrial processes, he says.
– The ability to scale depends on the purchasing power of the customers. If they have sufficient customers, they will have sufficient plant capacity.
