Avnos Bets on Modular Manufacturing to Speed Up DAC Deployment

Direct air capture is borrowing a page from the clean-energy playbook: build standardized units in a factory, test them before shipping, and deploy multiple modules instead of redesigning every project from scratch. Avnos, the Los Angeles-based developer of Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC) technology, is building toward a model where repeatable manufacturing, not just larger facilities, drives scale.

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Why Is Modular Manufacturing a Different Kind of DAC Scaling?

Modular manufacturing scales direct air capture by multiplying standardized units rather than enlarging single plants. Avnos' HDAC Module is built and tested in a factory before it ships to site.

Most of the conversation around scaling DAC has focused on building progressively larger facilities. Bigger plants spread fixed costs over more captured carbon. That logic still holds.

There is a second approach. Manufacture standardized units in a controlled environment, verify performance before shipment, then deploy several modules at one site.

Avnos designed the HDAC Module for repeatable deployment across three settings: data centers, geologic carbon storage hubs, and next-generation fuel production. The same unit serves each configuration.

Repeatable engineering reduces site-specific design work. Factory quality control replaces field fabrication uncertainty. Higher production volumes open the door to automation and bulk component procurement.

The DAC cost reduction pathway remains one of the defining challenges in carbon removal. Removal costs across the industry currently run from roughly $500 to $1,000 per ton. The widely cited commercial viability threshold sits below $100 per ton.

How Has Avnos Moved From Pilot to Repeatable Deployment?

Avnos progressed from a 30-ton pilot in California to a 450-ton demonstration in New Jersey in roughly three years. Each step validated the technology at a larger scale.

The company's first field deployment was a pilot in Bakersfield, California, run alongside SoCalGas with U.S. Department of Energy funding. That unit captured approximately 30 tons of CO2 annually.

Bakersfield validated the core process. HDAC captures atmospheric CO2 while simultaneously producing clean water, with no external heat input required.

Project Brighton in Bridgewater, New Jersey, is the company's largest operating deployment. Brighton is designed to capture up to 450 tons of atmospheric CO2 annually and produce approximately 475,000 gallons of clean water each year.

The U.S. Office of Naval Research funded Brighton. The project supports Avnos' work piloting DAC-sourced CO2 for sustainable aviation fuel production.

Brighton sits alongside Avnos' Technology Development Center on Milltown Road, putting research, testing, and product development on one campus.

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What Does Project Cedar Show About Modular Scaling?

Project Cedar will capture 3,000 metric tons of CO2 per year using four HDAC modules. The module count matters as much as the capacity figure.

Cedar will also produce more than 6,000 tons of clean water annually. The project is funded through up to $17 million from Shell US Gas and Power, LLC and Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas).

Avnos has not yet announced the site. Construction is expected to finish by the end of 2026, with operations starting in early 2027.

Four standardized units deliver the full 3,000 metric tons. Engineers deploy and connect modules of a type already proven at Brighton rather than designing a new plant.

That distinction defines the scaling model. Developers add manufactured units instead of continually redesigning larger bespoke facilities.

Kain told Axios that Cedar "puts us on our pathway" to plants in the 50,000 to 100,000 ton per year range with removal costs under $250 per ton. "Then, we've got really good line of sight to getting to that less than $100 per ton of CO2 target," he said.

Project	Location	Annual CO2 Capacity	Configuration and Status
Bakersfield Pilot	Bakersfield, California	Approximately 30 tons	Pilot unit with SoCalGas, complete
Project Brighton	Bridgewater, New Jersey	Up to 450 tons	Demonstration, operational 2026
Project Cedar	United States, site to be announced	3,000 metric tons	Four HDAC modules, operations early 2027

How Could Factory Production Affect DAC Project Economics?

Factory production creates the conditions for cost reduction rather than guaranteeing it. The mechanism is repeatable engineering applied across successive units.

Building the same unit under controlled conditions means engineers stop re-solving identical design problems. Standardized components make procurement more efficient as order volumes rise.

Each additional unit generates production data that feeds refinement. Work that once happened on-site, with its weather exposure and field labor costs, moves indoors.

Avnos has tied its manufacturing strategy directly to this roadmap. The company plans to develop high-speed, highly automated manufacturing capabilities.

Kain has said this approach "will allow us to come up the maturity curve and down the risk and cost curve quite quickly." That describes company strategy, not cost reductions already achieved.

The solar and battery analogy is useful with caveats. Both technologies achieved steep declines through manufacturing scale, but also through mass-market demand, commodity supply chains, and decades of accumulated learning that DAC has not yet built.

HDAC carries one more economic distinction. Most DAC systems consume several tons of water per ton of CO2 captured, while Avnos produces five to ten tons of clean water per ton removed. The water co-product shifts a cost line toward a potential revenue line.

JetBlue Ventures has backed Avnos since the company's earlier funding rounds. Lower-cost atmospheric CO2 is a direct input to power-to-liquid aviation fuel, which makes DAC economics an aviation industry concern.

Who Is Backing Avnos and What Does That Signal?

Avnos has secured more than $100 million in combined public and private funding. The backer list spans energy majors, aviation investors, a large U.S. utility, and two federal departments.

Its supporters include Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Shell US Gas and Power, NextEra Energy Resources, ConocoPhillips, JetBlue Ventures, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Shell and Mitsubishi are financing Cedar directly. ConocoPhillips and JetBlue Ventures joined as strategic partners in 2023, and NextEra Energy Resources led the Series A round.

Each backer points to a different end market for the same hardware. Carbon storage, aviation fuel, and data center integration all draw on one module design.

That breadth matters for manufacturing economics. Cross-sector demand is what allows production volumes to grow fast enough for learning effects to show up in installed costs.

The Numbers That Will Settle It

Cedar's four modules and 3,000 metric tons of annual capacity make it the near-term test of the modular thesis. Operations begin in early 2027.

The question that follows Cedar is measurable. Do higher production volumes deliver lower installed capital costs, shorter construction schedules, and more aggregate capture capacity per dollar?

Avnos is not alone in betting on this model. CarbonCapture Inc. signed a lease in 2024 for an 83,000 square-foot plant in Mesa, Arizona, projected at full capacity to build 4,000 modules per year, equal to two megatons of removal capacity.

Svante took a parallel route in filter production, commissioning a 141,000 square-foot gigafactory in Burnaby, British Columbia, in May 2025. Standardization and automation are the stated cost levers in both cases.

Avnos has working technology, an operating 450-ton facility, commercial financing, and a four-module project underway. The manufacturing-first approach is among the more coherent strategies for making carbon removal repeatable. Cedar will supply the first real data on whether it works.

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