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Climeworks unveils its latest generation 3 direct air capture technology to scale up to megaton capacity. This new technology will first be deployed in the US and then replicated globally at secure project sites.
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The third-generation technology and design have been developed and validated over the past five years and will be implemented for the first time at full scale in June 2024 at the largest direct air capture test facility in Switzerland.
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The first large-scale tests have confirmed the expected breakthrough in efficiency and performance thanks to the built-in new CO₂ filter systems and process configurations.
The Generation 3 direct air capture technology is based on new structured sorbent materials in modular cubes.
Climeworks is future-proofing its technology to scale to gigatonne carbon removals globally by utilizing the latest research and development findings in its filter materials and plant design. At the annual Carbon Removal Summit in Zurich, Climeworks will demonstrate the success of its Generation 3 Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology: doubling the CO₂ capture capacity per module, halving energy consumption, extending the life of materials and reducing costs by 50 percent.
Double throughput – half the energy
Generation 3 technology uses new structured sorbent materials that replace the packed filter beds used in previous generations of technology. The new structures increase surface contact with CO₂, reducing the time for CO₂ capture and release by at least a factor of two, capturing more than twice as much CO₂ as previous filters. The new filter materials use half as much energy and are designed to last three times longer than previous materials. Generation 3 technology represents a significant milestone in Climeworks’ cost reduction strategy, which aims to achieve costs of USD 250-350 per tonne captured and total costs of USD 400-600 per tonne of net removal by 2030. This represents an overall cost reduction of up to 50 percent compared to today.
Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and co-CEO
Climeworks has always been committed to technology leadership. We pioneered 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 inaugurated a larger plant, Mammoth, ten times its size . At the same time, we have been developing our Generation 3 technology over the past five years. This development is based on real field data, allowing scale-up to megaton removal capacities
An advantage thanks to the largest testing facilities
The journey began at Climeworks’ small and medium-sized testing facilities in Zurich, where the new technology was refined before being tested at Climeworks’ large-scale testing facility in Basel, Switzerland.
Climeworks has a Research & Development team of 180 people, including 50 specialists focused on the development of Generation 3 technology. These specialists spent 15,000 hours testing new absorbent materials and performed 5,000 CO₂ capture and capture cycles to optimize the system’s sustainability and efficiency. Climeworks transformed its collection concept from traditional stacked collection containers to sleek, modular cubes. These cubes have been redesigned to increase capture efficiency, reduce costs and increase robustness. They each measure 26 by 26 meters and are 22.5 meters high (85 by 85 feet and 73 feet long).
At the forefront of innovation: megaton hubs in the US and beyond
The first factory utilizing this new generation of technology, including a new cube design, will be built in Louisiana as part of the megaton-scale “Project Cypress DAC Hub” funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Construction will begin in 2026 and would represent another tenfold scaling-up step towards megaton capacity. In addition, Climeworks is part of two more megaton hub proposals in the US and is actively developing projects in Norway, Kenya and Canada, as well as exploring other locations on the path to gigatonne capacity.
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Read more about Climeworks’ journey to gigaton scale:
Lead the race to net zero
High-quality carbon removal for your climate strategy.
Monthly industry updates from Climeworks
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