Direct Air Capture
Tackling the climate emergency
The world is facing a climate emergency. Use of fossil fuel and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions are changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways. We can collectively meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals and slow down global warming if countries achieve their net zero emission targets by 2050. Scenarios indicate that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) which captures CO2 and stores it away permanently, will be critical to meeting the world’s climate objectives. GreenCap Solutions is using direct air capture for a brighter future.
Direct air capture (DAC)
Direct air capture (DAC) is one of the few technology options available to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. When removing the CO2 from the atmosphere, it immediately stops contributing to global warming.
This is how it works
What is Direct air capture ?
When removing the CO2 from the atmosphere, it immediately stops contributing to global warming. DACCS is one of the few technology options available to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. It is the only feasible way to compensate for emissions from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and airplanes. These sources represent more than 60% of total emissions today, and are likely to increase as the population grows. One can permanently store or utilize the CO2 that has been removed in food production, fuel production, building materials, and other products that contain CO2.
Greencap technology enabling a zero emission world
Our purpose is to enable a clean, sustainable, net zero emission world. GreenCap Solutions is a Norwegian environmental technology provider of large-scale CO2 removal solutions. We apply DAC technology to industrial applications and to greenhouse systems, resulting in increased yield, greater resource efficiency and year-round production. GreenCap Solutions’ patented technology solves two of the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges: rising greenhouse gas emissions and resource scarcity. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Sandnes, Norway.
How it works
While most DAC providers use technologies involving chemicals, GreenCap Solutions uses a non-chemical approach to capturing CO2. Specifically, our process uses a microporous mineral called zeolite, which has tiny pores to lock in the CO2 molecules. Zeolites occur naturally, but are also produced industrially. Our DAC technology uses high-capacity fans to draw air from the atmosphere. The air is dehumidified before it is sent through a zeolite bed that adsorbs the CO2 on the surface area of its pores. This clean air is then released from the capture unit back into the atmosphere. Now the zeolite bed is saturated with CO2 that can be recovered by applying energy in the form of heat to release it.
This is an energy-demanding process, which we have resolved by using waste energy and heat storage. The CO2 gas is cooled and returned to its liquid state so that it can be transported to a permanent storage site or used in other industrial applications.
The result? A cost and energy-efficient technology that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere at scale, anywhere in the world.
Where it works
GreenCap Solutions’ DAC technology is used to grow vegetables in greenhouses. Proven, our technology increases crop yields by up to 40% by capturing CO2 from the air outside the greenhouse and releasing regular amounts inside. Simultaneously, we eliminate the use of fossil fuels for heating and CO2 for crop growth. In addition, our technology can capture emissions from stationary point sources of CO2, including fossil fuel power plants and cement factories that emit up to 4% CO2.
TWO APPROACHES ADDRESSING COMMERCIAL DAC OPPORTUNITIES
Although the world cannot stop climate change at once, we can slow it down and limit its severe consequences. To meet the net-zero commitments, global uptake of carbon capture, utilisation and storage needs to expand 120 times from current levels by 2050, rising to at least 4.2 gigatons per annum CO2 captured, according to McKinsey.
Our mission is to contribute to a brighter future through the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere using our sustainable and efficient DAC technology.
In addition to its small-to-medium scale modules currently used for greenhouses, GreenCap has partnered with industrial scaling experts Removr to develop the world’s first 1-million-ton solid sorbent DAC plant.
Leveraging the best available technology, innovative and efficient scaled processes, and a world-class team and partners, Removr’s ambition is to become a global leader in carbon removal. Removr is owned in part by Vanir Green Industries (VGI), founders of NYSE-listed FREYR Batteries, and GreenCap Solutions, a technology company controlled by the industry group BR Industries. Removr’s technology is based on Greencap Solutions’ proven and energy-efficient DAC technology. To learn more, please visit removr.no.
Systems based on Small-to-medium scale modules
Application: Modular plants for industrial processes
Large-scale industrial solution
Application: Large-scale plants capturing CO2 for permanent storage
Removr
60% owned by Vanir Green Industries and 40% owned by GCS. Removr follows a stepwise verification process in developing an industrial scaled up DAC farm where the current pipeline of projects include:
By Q3 2023, establish a project where Removr will capture CO2 and demonstrate the technology.
2025, build an industrial pilot capable of capturing 10,000-100,000 ton of CO2 annually.
2027, establish the world’s first large-scale solid sorbent DAC plant with a capacity of up to 1 million tons CO2 annually.
In August Removr signed an MOU with CO2 storage leader Carbfix.
The partners aim to co-develop a demonstration project for a Direct Air Capture (DAC) facility in Iceland. The capacity will be a minimum of 3,000 ton CO2 per year to come on stream in 2024.
Furthermore, as part of the MOU, the partners have decided to explore the potential for co-developing a large-scale DAC plant in Iceland.
August: Industrial Player and GCS entered into a MoU to jointly and subject to government funding. They developed a DAC and CO2 Sequestration Pilot Project with a planned duration of two years. Their objective is to provide data so that the parties may develop full-scale, commercial DAC facilities.
The pilot facility will have the capacity to capture 300 tons of CO2 per year for sequestration. It will provide a knowledge base that enables the construction of an industrial version.
