Amazon and Aramco Invest in CarbonCapture’s $80M Raise for DAC

CarbonCapture Inc., a prominent US-based direct air capture (DAC) company, has announced the successful completion of its $80 million Series A financing. This achievement follows the addition of several strategic investors, including Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Aramco Ventures, and Siemens Financial Services. 

The financing round was led by Prime Movers Lab, a notable investor in groundbreaking scientific startups, with participation from Idealab X, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and several other venture investors. The funds will be used to further advance technology development and to deploy early installations of CarbonCapture’s modular DAC systems.

• RELEVANT: How Direct Air Capture Works (And 4 Important Things About It)

Adrian Corless, CEO of CarbonCapture Inc., expressed excitement about welcoming the new strategic investors while noting that:

“To realize our ambitious mission to decarbonize the atmosphere, it’s imperative that we marshal the capabilities of the global industrial community…Together, we’re stepping closer to a cleaner, healthier planet for future generations.”

Atmospheric Alchemy: CarbonCapture’s DAC Triump

CarbonCapture is a direct air capture (DAC) startup that specializes in modular DAC machines. They can be interconnected in large arrays to remove substantial amounts of CO2 directly from the atmosphere. Its initial modules, located in Wyoming, are designed to capture and store approximately 10,000 metric tons (Mt) of CO2 annually.

The company has set an ambitious goal to remove 5 million Mt of CO2 annually by 2030 through a phased approach to CO2 removal, consisting of four phases. If successful, this carbon removal goal would be significant, given that the current annual global capacity for CO2 removal stands at only 0.01 million Mt of CO2.

The DAC modules resemble vented shipping containers and are capable of filtering out 75% of carbon from the air passing through them. The captured CO2 is then injected 12,000 feet underground into saline aquifers for permanent storage.

CarbonCapture’s DAC project, known as Project Bison, is groundbreaking for several reasons:

• It represents the first massively scalable deployment of DAC technology, with the potential to scale up to megaton levels.
• It is the first project to use Class VI injection wells for DAC carbon storage. Class VI wells are for permanent CO2 storage once approved.
• It could become the largest single DAC project in the world if it achieves its goal of 5 megatons of annual carbon capture and storage by 2030.

The company has already secured over $26 million in carbon removal credits through pre-sales to leading global companies such as Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group, Alphabet, Meta, Stripe, Shopify, McKinsey & Company, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

• READ MORE: Microsoft to Buy Carbon Removal Credits from CarbonCapture

Funding the Future of CDR

Direct air capture is an emerging CDR technology and so, it costs relatively higher than established carbon removal approaches. This is because atmospheric carbon is much more dilute than the flue gas of a power station, for instance.

Here are the costs of direct air capture in USD per ton of CO2, based on CO2 concentrations.

As DAC technology has not yet been demonstrated on a large scale, its costs remain uncertain. Capture cost estimates range anywhere from $200 to $700 per ton of CO2.

The actual cost of DAC depends on several factors, including energy source, carbon price, technology choice, capital expense, etc. All these factors influence the regional cost of carbon removal through direct air capture. Scaling up this removal technology is crucial to bring down its cost. 

CarbonCapture’s DAC technology has achieved significant technical and commercial progress. 

Pioneering DAC Innovation

Dr. Adiari Vazquez, Investment Partner at Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund highlighted CarbonCapture’s innovation in advancing the scalability and accessibility of carbon removal. He added that effective, verifiable, and durable carbon removal, such as that achieved through CarbonCapture Inc.’s DAC system, will be crucial for a net zero carbon future. 

Last year, Amazon inked its first investment in CDR credits with one of the world’s biggest DAC companies 1PointFive. It’s the first deal that Amazon made in DAC at this scale, with the credits coming from 1PointFive’s Stratos plant.

• READ MORE: Amazon Enters First Carbon Removal Credits Deal With 1PointFive

Aramco Ventures is also pleased to support CarbonCapture’s unique, modular direct air capture platform. Aramco, alongside Chevron and Samsung, also invested in a UK-based carbon capture tech startup’s $150M raise in 2022.

Siemens Financial Services’ investment further amplifies the CDR company’s role in commercializing direct air capture in the US. Their expertise and portfolio of digital process simulation, automation, and control solutions will support CarbonCapture’s ambitious plans to deploy DAC systems at scale.