Mission Zero Technologies (MZT) has been chosen to begin trialling their ground-breaking Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology previously developed with support from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).
Phase 1 of the project saw the completion of the R&D work, FEED activities, and deployment planning exercise; Phase 2 will see this realised into a working pilot plant alongside partners Optimus and O.C.O Technology Ltd. The project’s £3 million funding is part of a wider pool of funding for emerging climate technologies recently released through BEIS.
“This £54 million government investment announced today will help establish a greenhouse gas removal industry in the UK, which could be worth billions to our economy, bringing in private investment and supporting the creation of new green jobs.” — Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Hands
DAC is a carbon capture technology approach that focuses on removing CO₂ directly from the atmosphere around us.
Typically this requires significant amounts of heat and electricity and large commitments of capital, making the economics and commercialization timelines challenging. MZT, a London-based startup, is disrupting the status quo with a modularized DAC technology that is projected to reduce both energy consumption as well as capture costs by over 4 times compared to today’s commercial offerings, with a roadmap to dropping below the $100/ton price point at commercial scales.
Through partnership with Optimus and O.C.O, phase 2 will extend the application of this technology to reuse of the CO₂ in the creation of Manufactured LimeStone, a valuable building material.
“This programme is pivotal in our shared progress towards creating valuable materials from CO₂ captured from the air. This has a monumental impact on the UK’s and the world’s journey to net zero and a carbon negative future.” — MZT Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Shiladitya Ghosh
The scaled demonstration from phase 2 will be one of the first demonstrations of DAC integrating with a carbon-negative use case that both utilises and sequesters carbon (commonly known as CCU/CCS).
