Latest Update
Hexa partners with Sirona Technologies and Agendi – Learn more
Hexa partners with Sirona Technologies and Agendi – Learn more
Hexa partners with Sirona Technologies and Agendi – Learn more
Direct Air Capture (DAC) is a groundbreaking technology designed to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time: climate change. This innovative process involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere and either storing it underground or utilizing it in various industrial applications. As global CO2 levels continue to rise, contributing to global warming, DAC offers a promising solution to mitigate these effects by actively removing this potent greenhouse gas from the air.
A key product of this technology is the direct air capture credit. These credits represent a quantifiable amount of CO2 that has been removed from the atmosphere through DAC processes. Businesses and individuals can purchase these credits as a way to offset their own carbon footprints, effectively balancing out their emissions by ensuring an equivalent amount of CO2 is captured and stored. This not only aids in regulatory compliance for companies under carbon reduction mandates but also enhances corporate sustainability profiles.
Our machines pull air through a chemical filter, which selectively adsorbs CO2, while the rest of the air goes through. When the chemical filter is saturated in CO2, we inject steam instead. This heats up the chemical filter and releases the CO2 so we can capture it. We then give the CO2 to a partner who injects underground, in basalt rock. The rock reacts with the CO2 and turns the CO2 into rock itself! This permanently stores it.
If we had to remove all the CO2 we need to remove over the next century, about a 1000 giga-tonnes, we would need to plant a new tropical forest the size of Asia. Forests are great for many reasons, but they unfortunately won't be enough to fight climate change.
Today, the world emits about 40 GT of CO2 per year in the air. If the world manages to do a great job at reducing emissions over the next three decades, we might be able to reduce that to 10 GT of CO2 per year. If Direct Air Capture was to compensate for those last 10 GT of CO2 per year, we would need about 150km x 150km of solar panels to power it. That can sound like a lot, but it's only about 10% of the renewable energy we will have to build for the clean energy transition anyway. So it's a lot, but also actually doable.
We think Kenya is one of the best places in the world for Direct Air Capture. First, it has an abundance of renewable energy. It's grid is already 90%+ renewable, and they have an excess of geothermal energy.
Second, it has an ideal geology for CO2 storage. And lastly, the government is very supportive of Direct Air Capture and welcoming the industry with open arms, as they understand their country's potential and the co-benefits it will provide to its communities.