Emphasizing resilience through innovation: Heirloom pioneering Direct Air Capture technology

Heirloom Carbon Technologies was founded in 2020 in San Francisco and is operating America’s first commercial Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility. The facility is located in Tracy, California and is one of only 18 DAC facilities operated globally, collectively capturing 10,000 tons of CO₂ a year[1].

Most companies are unable to completely eliminate their full carbon footprint when the effects of both up and downstream activities are considered. Therefore, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) can be an important tool for building climate resilience. The DAC technology emerges as a notably promising method for CDR as it actively extracts CO₂ from the atmosphere without the uncertainty of additionality often causing concerns for other CDR initiatives.

DAC can either enable the permanent storage of CO₂, actual CDR, or repurpose the captured CO₂ for other innovative uses, such as reinforced concrete and eFuels. An example of such an eFuel could be eMethanol potentially used for large container ships as a green alternative to marine diesel and as such DAC can serve as a vital contributor to the decarbonization efforts of other industries, notably shipping.

A significant challenge that lies ahead for DAC-based companies is demonstrating the scalability of the technology in a cost-effective manner. Heirloom seeks to address this challenge by accelerating the natural process of carbon mineralization, capturing CO₂ using limestone, one of the most abundant rocks on the planet[3]. Carbon mineralization describes the process whereby CO₂ from the atmosphere binds to minerals and permanently transforms into rock – a process normally occurring over geological timescales but accelerated into just days by Heirloom’s technology[4].

Heirloom’s technology is expected to bring down the cost to $100 per ton CO₂ by 2035[4]. This price is double the cost of existing ‘natural’ solutions for CO2 absorption and storage, such as forestation and soil carbon sequestration, making the technological advancements critical in ensuring DAC as a viable part of resilient climate strategies[5].