What is Direct Air Capture?

Direct air capture (or DAC) is key to mitigating climate change.

It is a technology solution that captures carbon dioxide directly from ambient air. Our modular CO₂ collectors are powered solely by renewable energy or energy-from-waste and selectively capture carbon dioxide in two steps:

Phase 1
Air is drawn into the collector with a fan. Carbon dioxide is captured on the surface of a highly selective filter material that sits inside the collectors (“adsorption”).

Phase 2
After the filter material is full with carbon dioxide, the collector is closed. The filter material is then heated to approximately 100 °C - this releases the carbon dioxide (“desorption”) and we can collect it in high purity and concentration.

The air-captured carbon dioxide can either be upcycled into climate-friendly products such as carbon-neutral fuels and materials, or completely removed from the air by safely storing it.

At the Climeworks Orca plant, Climeworks captures CO₂ from air which is then delivered to Carbfix who provides permanent CO₂ storage via mineralization.  

For further information please have a look at our “"How it works" section.