NEG8 Carbon CTO Dr John Breen. Image: NEG8
NEG8 Carbon and Carbon Collect have revealed upgrades to their devices, but there are concerns around this technology.
Two Irish-based companies have announced improvements to their carbon capture tech, a polarising method to address the climate crisis.
Carbon capture involves the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, either from specific sources such as power plants or directly from the air. Proponents believe that these methods can be used to maintain industrial production and economic growth while reducing emissions, but some climate experts have issues with these claims.
One Irish company working on this technology is NEG8 Carbon, a Waterford-based entity that has announced improvements to its direct air capture system. The company’s product captures C02 from the air so it can be stored underground or turned into carbon-neutral products such as sustainable aviation fuel.
The company uses thick beds of sorbents – insoluble materials – to capture the carbon. NEG8 says its latest tech upgrade reduces the number of sorbents needed by 80pc. The company also claims its latest technology is more efficient, with its regeneration time reduced by 90pc and its energy consumption reduced by more than 20pc.
“As the global community strives to combat climate change, reducing carbon emissions is important, but it is only part of the solution,” said NEG8 CTO Dr John Breen. “Equally important is removing existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“Direct Air Capture technology plays a crucial role in this effort by capturing CO2 directly from the air, offering a scalable solution to help meet global net-zero targets.”
The company plans to create a demonstration unit in a real-world setting that showcases these latest improvements by the third quarter of 2024.
Mechanical trees
Another Irish-based company that has announced an improvement to its carbon-capture tech is Carbon Collect. This company unveiled a commercial-scale ‘mechanical tree’ in 2022 as a way to capture CO2 from the atmosphere.
The company said that year that its device was up to 1,000 times more efficient than a natural tree at removing CO2 from the air. Now, it is working on the second generation of this device and claims this will capture significantly more C02 at a reduced operating cost.
The Dublin-based company said it in discussion with a number of potential investors to support the development of this next product. It plans to install its first version of this upgraded mechanical tree at the end of 2024, before having commercial deployments in 2025.
“Carbon Collect has listened to the market, collaborated with world-class experts and is now delivering a solution that is more efficient, scalable and cost-effective than anything that has come before it,” said company CEO Pól Ó Móráin. “We are excited to bring this update on the launch of our second-generation Mechanical Tree to investors.”
Concerns around carbon capture
But while supporters believe this technology can become an effective tool to tackle the growing climate crisis, critics believe the technology is over-hyped, high in costs and limited in potential scale.
The British Geological Survey argues that the tech will be slow to improve unless there is a financial incentive, for example fines for CO2 emissions.
Regulatory frameworks for CO2 storage are still being developed. A European directive says that issues such as leakage and maintenance of storage sites need to be addressed.
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