U.S. CO2 capture and storage startup raises $80 million from Amazon, Saudi Aramco, others.

Though behind on production schedule, CarbonCapture's latest major funding round raised $80 million from Saudi Aramco and other big names such as Prime Movers Lab, Amazon, Siemens Financial Services, Idealab X, and Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures. The startup is now reframing its focus on a massive, industrial application of its modular carbon dioxide-capturing designs.

CarbonCapture has yet to make good on its first functional prototype or commercial-scale deployment, but this infusion of funds serves as much as a testimony as it does help. The money raised represents one of the largest investments of private capital into direct-air carbon capture, which doesn't come cheap.

Initially, CarbonCapture envisioned deploying its first modules at a mine site, with early investors Rio Tinto and Talon Metals partnering on a nickel, copper, and cobalt mine in Minnesota with a long-term goal to inject captured CO2 into ultramafic formations beneath the site.

If the industry expects to take off sooner rather than later, it'll need lots of capital and heavy-hitting industrial partnerships, all on a much bigger scale.

Starting small, going big

CarbonCapture is a Los Angeles-based startup building self-contained modules comprised of a specialized material that acts like a sponge, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air when cooled and releasing it when heated – a scalable vision for the otherwise expensive process of direct-air capture (DAC). These modules can be individually hauled anywhere in the country on a flatbed truck.

Customers could start small with a few, adding more over time, then either bury the captured CO2 or use it to make industrial products like concrete or, in a recent solution of growing interest, make green fuel for the aviation and maritime industries.

Self-contained direct air capture modules can easily be hauled anywhere in the country on a flatbed truck, allowing customers to start small and scale up over time.

The company's investors include a surprising contribution from the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco to begin deploying massive arrays of its technology, which will inject the captured CO2 into deep geologic formations.

While some companies in the DAC industry have avoided partnering with oil companies, CarbonCapture's CEO Adrian Corless emphasizes that a variety of different partners with deep pockets is the only way to get this industry off the ground.

Saudi Aramco is among several fossil fuel companies backing carbon removal efforts, including U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum. The oil industry sees DAC technology as a potential lifeline because it can remove CO2 produced from burning fossil fuels.

Despite this, critics see this as a disguised opportunity to continue business as usual, negating any true emissions reduction, or that DAC technology itself threatens to divert funding away from the far more urgent task of developing and deploying the daunting task of a clean energy overhaul across all industries.

Driving down prices

CarbonCapture was first formed in 2019 at the Idealab incubator in Pasadena, California, developing a technology that uses industrial fans to pass air through solid sorbent carbon sponges that chemically bind with the passing CO2.

This month's latest funding represents one of the largest infusions of private dollars into the field of DAC, originally considered too expensive to be anything but a last resort, now gaining traction with investors in spite of costs, with policymakers and energy experts touting it as a powerful tool for avoiding further emissions-related climate damage.

CarbonCapture

CarbonCapture's logo on an exterior building.

"To realize our ambitious mission to decarbonize the atmosphere, it's imperative that we marshal the capabilities of the global industrial community," said Corless. "The unparalleled logistics and supply chain prowess of Amazon, the world-class capabilities of Aramco Ventures, and the digital transformation and energy transition expertise of Siemens will be pivotal to helping us scale DAC in the coming years. We also want to thank our existing investors for their continued belief and support. Together, we're stepping closer to a cleaner, healthier planet for future generations."

Capturing CO2 passively from the air is still the most expensive form of CO2 removal. For DAC systems to be widely adopted, costs will need to plummet from today's range of $400-1,000 per metric ton to a more standardized $100 per metric ton before 2050.

CarbonCapture's method of CO2 removal from its sorbent sponges includes a water- and energy-intensive process of steam and pressure. To that end, Corless said his company aims to reduce its per-ton energy consumption by more than 50% between now and 2030.

The startup is thus mainly focused on continuously upgrading its sorbent tech to make it cheaper and more efficient while maintaining the modular design to support any change-up of sorbents with improved versions as they naturally deplete over time or as new options become available.

"CarbonCapture has made substantial technical and commercial progress since our initial investment in the company, signing offtake agreements with some of the world's largest brands. Prime Movers Lab has done due diligence on numerous carbon capture companies, and we believe Adrian and his team are the ones who will decarbonize our atmosphere at scale and emerge as one of the most important breakthrough science companies," said Zia Huque, Prime Movers Lab general partner and CarbonCapture board member.

Continuing support

CarbonCapture still plans to deploy projects for its mining and concrete customers, but its primary focus is on taking current funds to complete designs of a megaton-scale DAC system for the U.S. Department of Energy to deploy direct air capture nationwide and to hopefully snag the 45Q tax credit, which provides incentives for permanently injecting CO2 into geological formations.

The Frontier coalition (whose notable members include Shopify, Meta, Stripe, and other tech giants) selected the startup last fall, citing the potential cost reductions from CarbonCapture's interchangeable cartridges. Frontier has facilitated its first set of DAC offtakes with the startup, agreeing to pay CarbonCapture $20 million to remove 45,000 metric tons of CO2 by 2028.

Last August, the DOE awarded CarbonCapture $12.5 million for a 200,000-metric-ton facility called Project Bison, in Wyoming. This project, in partnership with carbon storage developer Frontier Carbon Solutions, has the ambitious target of permanently removing five megatons of atmospheric CO2 annually by 2030. This is a tiny fraction of the United States' annual six billion tons of carbon emissions, but every little bit helps. And due to the modularity of the design, that help is already scalable.

Powering the Bison facility will presumably require hundreds of megawatts, which isn't great news as nearly three-quarters of Wyoming's electricity comes from coal. CarbonCapture is working with movers and shakers to develop more wind, solar and other carbon-free energy sources in the state and region.

Corless is keen on the issue and emphasizes that his company intends to ensure actual net carbon benefits out of running the machines.

Other carbon removal companies, including Carbon Engineering, Climeworks, and XPRIZE winners Heirloom and Verdox have also raised tens of millions over the last few years, while the DOE has more than $11 billion set aside to support the technology, including a $3.5 billion initiative to build four DAC hubs, with two still to be announced.