Largest US direct air capture plant opens in Oklahoma

By Carlos Anchondo | 08/13/2024 06:43 AM EDT

The Bantam project aims to make it more affordable to extract CO2 from the atmosphere.

Heimdal is launching a direct air capture facility in northern Oklahoma. A kiln is shown during construction at the site.

Heimdal is launching a direct air capture facility in northern Oklahoma. A kiln is shown during construction at the site. Heimdal/Yaser Alhamwy and Fraser Christensen

The largest U.S. facility for pulling carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere is launching Tuesday in a sparsely populated pocket of northern Oklahoma.

Denver-based Heimdal plans to extract at least 5,000 metric tons of CO2 out of the sky each year with its new Bantam project, which is named after a small but hardy chicken.

Direct air capture, or DAC, is still a fledgling technology, making Heimdal one of its earliest deployers. The Bantam project will be the most affordable U.S. DAC facility, according to the company. It is aiming to trap CO2 for a removal cost of less than $200 per metric ton, which Heimdal said is far cheaper than other projects.

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“We have a fundamentally different technology and philosophical approach to how we build these systems,” said Marcus Lima, Heimdal’s CEO. “Our critical breakthrough was in our sorbent material, which is basically something that enables extreme simplicity in the system.”

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