Climeworks and Svante Collaborate in Development and Supply for Direct Air Capture

• Svante will provide Climeworks with contactor blocks incorporating first-of-its-kind filter technology.
• Both companies agree to collaborate on three major CO₂ removal projects in a critical step toward developing direct air capture hubs in the U.S. capable of capturing megatons of CO₂.

Climeworks has signed a collaboration and supply agreement with Svante Technologies Inc. (Svante), a leading carbon capture and removal solutions provider. The companies agreed to jointly plan the supply of Svante’s contactor blocks for three major Climeworks projects, intending to lead to a commercial-scale supply agreement, whereby Climeworks would purchase Svante’s contactor blocks for its planned megaton direct air capturing hubs in the US.

The US Department of Energy selected Climeworks to develop three of these hubs, in Louisiana, California, and North Dakota, making the company eligible for a total of more than USD 600 million in government funding.

Combined forces for global carbon removal

The collaboration allows both partners to agree on intermediate goals, and to jointly proceed to the next phase of development. “Delivering large-scale direct air capture required us to approach this collaboration with flexibility on the development of project specifications while retaining rigorous accountability for the success of the overall project,” says Claude Letourneau, President and CEO of Svante. “We’ve been closely collaborating with Climeworks over the past three years, and because of that proximity, we felt comfortable entering into this kind of arrangement. The combination of our advanced technologies represents a significant step forward in the nascent direct air capture industry, playing a critical role in meeting the world’s net-zero ambitions.”

Svante is in the final stages of building its commercial filter manufacturing facility, The Centre of Excellence for Carbon Capture and Removal, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The Centre is equipped to supply both the industrial point source post-combustion carbon capture market and the direct air capture market. Svante has anticipated and prepared for the event where the agreement with Climeworks takes up a significant portion of the Centre’s capacity and has secured additional coating capacity with its partner, 3M.

Best-in-class technology for Climeworks’ large-scale direct air capture projects

With the extended collaboration, Climeworks secures best-in-class technology supporting its scale-up journey. A crucial part of the direct air capture process involves filter material trapping CO₂ from the ambient air, and Svante’s filter technology will further enhance the performance of the carbon dioxide capturing process.

“We are focusing on the massive growth of our carbon removal technology to create climate impact,” says Jan Wurzbacher, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Climeworks. Svante is one of the key players in the ecosystem to support us in our journey to scale to a gigaton capacity.”

About Svante

Svante is a purpose-driven, leading carbon capture and removal solutions provider. The Vancouver, Canada-based company manufactures nanoengineered filters and modular rotary contactor machines that capture and remove CO₂ from industrial emissions and the air in an environmentally responsible manner. Svante is on the 2024 Global Cleantech 100, the XPRIZE Foundation’s XB100 – World’s Top 100 Deep Tech Companies and was ranked second among private companies in the Corporate Knights’ Future 50 Fastest Growing Sustainable Companies.

About Climeworks

Climeworks is the global leader in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) as a service via direct air capture (DAC) technology, empowering companies to advance their net zero roadmaps and fight climate change. Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in 2009, Climeworks is on a journey to climate impact at scale with integrity at its core and a focus on high-quality, permanent carbon removals.

Climeworks is spearheading the DAC industry globally, with the world’s only commercial DAC facility combined with storage installation in operation, modular CO₂ collectors designed for scalability, and facilities running on renewable energy. Their growing customer base counts over 160 companies, including multinationals such as Microsoft, BCG, UBS, and Swiss Re.

At Orca, Climeworks’ DAC facility in Iceland, the CO₂ is permanently removed from the air by capturing and geologically storing it for thousands of years with Climeworks’ underground mineralization partner Carbfix. The CDR services delivered from Orca are verified by independent 3rd party DNV.

Source

Svante, press release, 2024-01-30.

Supplier

Climeworks AG
Svante Inc.
US Department of Energy (DoE)

Share