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Press Release

CarbonCapture Inc. Unveils First U.S. Direct Air Capture System Designed for Mass Production; Modular Units to Be Manufactured at New High-volume Facility in Mesa, Arizona

Published by Todd Bush on June 21, 2024

  • CarbonCapture to demonstrate its new Leo Series modular DAC system to strategic partners, government officials, and news media at a private event

  • Designed for mass production and ease of global transport, each Leo Series module is the size of a standard shipping container and can capture over 500 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year

  • CarbonCapture's new DAC system will be manufactured at a new 83,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona capable of producing up to 4,000 modules annually (equal to over two megatons of annual carbon removal)

  • First Leo Series modules will be deployed in 2025 and made available to developers of carbon removal projects worldwide

LOS ANGELES, June 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CarbonCapture Inc. (CarbonCapture) today announced its Leo Series, the first U.S. direct air capture (DAC) system designed for mass production. This announcement marks a key inflection point in the atmospheric carbon removal industry as it begins to transition from laboratory research to large-scale deployments in the field.

CarbonCapture Inc.'s Leo Series DAC module

CarbonCapture Inc.'s Leo Series DAC module

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CarbonCapture Inc.'s Leo Series DAC module CarbonCapture Inc.'s Leo Series DAC module CarbonCapture will demonstrate a fully commissioned 12-reactor Leo Series module today at an unveiling event outside of Los Angeles. Guests include industry stakeholders across the entire carbon dioxide removal ecosystem, who will gather to celebrate the launch and hear industry leaders take the stage to discuss the impact it will have on the future of DAC. Speakers include:

  • Chris Neidl, Co-founder, The OpenAir Collective and Board Member, Direct Air Capture Coalition

  • Bill Gross, Chairman and Co-founder, CarbonCapture Inc.

  • Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Energy

  • Nick Ellis, Principal, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund

  • Jan Mazurek, Ph.D., Senior Director, Aviation and Carbon Dioxide Removal, Climateworks

  • JT Larson, Wyoming State Representative

  • Steven Cliff, Ph.D., Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board

  • Chris Camacho, President and CEO, Greater Phoenix Economic Council

  • Neil Chatterjee, former Chairman of FERC and board member of CarbonCapture Inc.

  • Adrian Corless, CEO, CarbonCapture Inc.

Adrian Corless, CEO of CarbonCapture Inc., stated, "The Leo Series represents a major achievement for CarbonCapture. We've now developed a manufacturable product, built a full commercial supply chain, and established a facility for mass production—the combination of which allows us to introduce cost-saving improvements very quickly while also scaling up production. We're seeing robust demand for our modules from both our company-owned projects fueled by carbon removal credit sales and external project developers."

The Leo Series incorporates industry-leading, advanced structured sorbents that enable each module to capture over 500 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year. Due to its open systems architecture, modules can be upgraded throughout their life with higher capacity sorbents as they are released, minimizing obsolescence risk and driving down costs over time.

"What CarbonCapture Inc. is doing with its modular approach to direct air capture, and efforts to ramp up production of the technology and bring down costs, underscores the indispensable role of the private sector in developing and deploying carbon management at a scale needed to achieve a clean energy and industrial future," said Brad Crabtree, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. "Achieving our climate goals will require a domestic industrial renaissance, and CarbonCapture Inc. is a great example of the kind of homegrown, U.S.-based manufacturing that is central to President Biden's Investing in America agenda."

Designed for mass production

By developing and mass-producing modular DAC systems that can be strung together in large arrays, CarbonCapture aims to rapidly drive down the cost of atmospheric carbon removal. The solar industry provides a clear precedent for how economies of scale can lead to substantial cost reductions; over the past two decades, the cost of solar photovoltaic modules has plummeted by over 90% primarily due to advancements in high-volume manufacturing, increased production volumes, and enhanced efficiencies.

Nick Ellis, a Principal at Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, commented, "As co-founders of The Climate Pledge—with a goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040—Amazon's first priority is to implement decarbonization strategies through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other emission elimination strategies. We also invest in companies like CarbonCapture, who aim to accelerate the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We look forward to continuing to work with CarbonCapture to navigate the challenges ahead of managing rapid growth, navigating complex supply chains, and adapting to a fast-changing landscape—all areas where Amazon can share our expertise."

By producing DAC modules at scale, CarbonCapture intends to leverage cost-savings such as bulk purchasing of raw materials, streamlined manufacturing processes, and the amortization of R&D costs over large numbers of units. This approach is expected to significantly reduce the per-unit cost of the company's DAC modules and make them more accessible for widespread deployment.

Made in the USA

Los Angeles-based CarbonCapture is at the forefront of a burgeoning multi-billion-dollar carbon management industry. U.S. companies are uniquely positioned to lead the world in ushering in an era of global carbon removal, leveraging deep technological prowess, strong government incentives, a highly skilled workforce, and geology well-suited for permanent carbon storage.

David Apps, VP of Manufacturing at CarbonCapture Inc., remarked, "Over the last 25 years—from Tesla to Toyota—I've implemented flexible high-volume manufacturing processes that reduced costs while also accelerating the speed in which new innovations are brought to market. My goal is to bring the agile manufacturing techniques of the modern automotive industry to the direct air capture industry, demonstrating U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing."

CarbonCapture's 83,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, was chosen after an exhaustive nationwide search due to its central location, availability of clean energy, and workforce readiness. In addition to supplying DAC modules to third-party carbon removal developers around the world, the high-volume facility will have the production capacity needed to supply Project Bison, the company's megaton-scale carbon removal project in Wyoming, as well as the Southwest Regional Direct Air Capture Hub, both of which are supported by grants under the DOE's $3.5 billion Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program.

About CarbonCapture Inc.

CarbonCapture develops and deploys direct air capture (DAC) machines that can be connected in large arrays to remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. With a patented modular open systems architecture, the company's DAC systems allow for mass production, plug-and-play upgrades, and unlimited scalability.

For more information, please visit carboncapture.com

Media contact: media@carboncapture.com

SOURCE CarbonCapture Inc.

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