Insurance can be about more than just money. In some cases, equipment as well.
This is one way to think about direct air capture, a technology that uses machines to extract carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. The idea has been floating around for years, but the 2022 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sparked interest. The report states that the technology known as DAC is essential to achieving net zero. Carbon emissions.
Several companies are tackling this issue, but there are many hurdles. Start-ups need to find a suitable place to store CO2 or allow customers to purchase it. The devices also need to be cheap to build and cheap to operate.
One company, AirMyne, is betting that its proprietary fluid is the key to overcoming these hurdles. Other companies also use liquids to absorb CO2, but they must use high heat to release the gas.
Regeneration cycles at elevated temperatures can be more efficient because of the unique nature of the chemical reactions involved. But such intense heat is difficult to obtain, so AirMyne has developed a liquid that uses low-temperature heat of just 100 to 130 degrees Celsius (212 to 266 degrees Fahrenheit) to regenerate or release CO2.
AirMyne's low-temperature thermal requirements mean the entire process could prove less efficient than a high-temperature approach, but co-founder and COO Mark Cyffka says it's a key factor in his company's growth. We believe this will give us better opportunities to scale up.
“It's flexible. When you're in the pilot stage and trying to build your first pilot, you can use low-temperature heat from electricity, you can use it from industrial waste heat, you can use it from geothermal heat.” he told TechCrunch. .
The company is considering various configurations of the overall system. The collector is likely to be modular, from where the liquid flows to a large concentrated column for regeneration. This is similar to the type used in large chemical plants of the kind Mr. Cyffka worked on when he was at BASF. Y Combinator graduates are currently testing about 30 prototypes, he added.
According to a patent issued by the company, the main component of AirMyne's liquid appears to be one or more variants of quaternary ammonium compounds. Quaternary ammonium is a type of compound that is widely used in a wide range of applications such as hand sanitizers, hair care products, and fabric softeners. Interest in them as CO2 adsorbents has recently surged. One reason for this is that they are widely available, relatively stable, and do not require high heat to release the trapped CO2. In some formulations, he releases CO2 when near saturated humidity, providing another way to control liquid regeneration.
air mine team. Image credit: AirMyne
Schifka said being able to harness the heat of geothermal energy is helpful. “This is also an important point as it gives us a path to scale, but I think many other approaches will have difficulties if we stick to electric. Geothermal is very much the way forward for DAC. It is a promising method.”
Along these lines, the company is working with Fervo to combine its carbon capture systems with the geothermal startup's advanced geothermal projects in Utah. The company has so far used the CO2 it captured in its lab to send samples to CarbonBuilt, a low-carbon cement company, and Rubi, which makes textiles from CO2.
Air Mine plans to deploy its carbon capture technology in 2026 at a sequestration site in San Joaquin County, California, where it will be injected underground. To get there, the company recently raised a $6.9 million seed round, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
Airmine's use of low-temperature heat means the technology could be used in a wide variety of sites, from geothermal facilities to chemical refineries to breweries, but the final tally could be limited by the ultimate scale of reclamation. Column with gender. Liquid-based systems also require large amounts of water, between 1 and 7 tons per ton of captured carbon, as some of the water inevitably evaporates on contact with the atmosphere. Therefore, it may not be usable in arid regions such as the American Southwest.
Still, the demand for carbon capture is likely to be so large that there will be room for several different companies to enter the market. AirMyne's inherent compatibility with geothermal may help it carve out a suitably sized niche.
Investors in this round include Alumni Ventures, Another Brain, Liquid 2 Ventures, EMLES, angel investor Justin Hamilton, Impact Science Ventures, Soma Capital, Wayfinder, and Y Combinator.