Hardware Podcasts

A Sustainable Approach to Direct Air Capture with Noah McQueen, Head of Research & Co-Founder of Heirloom

Hardware to Save a Planet · 7 Jul 2022 · 38m · Episode 4

What this episode covers

Noah McQueen, co-founder and head of research at Heirloom Carbon, explains the company's direct air capture (DAC) technology, which uses limestone and steel to passively mineralize CO2 from the atmosphere. He details the cyclic process of heating calcium carbonate to release pure CO2 for storage and regenerating the sorbent, highlighting the design of modular 'cafeteria rack' contactors to enable mass manufacturing and cost reduction. McQueen discusses Heirloom's pathway to under $100 per ton of CO2, the current state of the voluntary carbon market with customers like Stripe and Shopify, and the company's plan to deploy its first commercial plant in early 2023.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Heirloom Carbon, Stripe, Shopify, Clarna, Sourceful, Carbon Direct, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Arrington Capital, Carb Fix

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • How I Built This · 27m

    Building a decarbonization army with Shashank Samala of Heirloom

    Shashank Samala, co-founder and CEO of Heirloom, explains how his company built North America’s first operational direct air capture facility in Tracy, California, using a novel limestone-based process to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Samala details the technical approach of baking limestone into calcium oxide to create 'trays' that absorb CO2, contrasting this with expensive synthetic materials used by competitors like Climeworks. He discusses the business model, noting that Heirloom sells carbon removal credits to major corporations like Microsoft, Stripe, and Meta, aiming to scale production to 1 million tons per year by leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act’s 45Q tax credits. The episode covers Heirloom’s journey from a garage-stage startup to scaling production, highlighting their goal to build 1,000 facilities globally to remove 1 billion tons of CO2 annually by the 2030s.

    Energy & climate techStarting a product company
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 38m

    ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher

    Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and CEO of Climeworks, explains how his company is building the world's largest direct air capture facility, the Orca plant in Iceland, which removes 4,000 tons of CO2 annually. He details the technology's modular design, using filter materials that capture CO2 and release it when heated, allowing for permanent underground storage in basaltic rock. Wurzbacher discusses the company's journey from selling CO2 to greenhouses and Coca-Cola to securing $650 million in Series 6 funding to scale operations. He argues that while emission reductions are critical, removing 10 billion tons of CO2 yearly by 2050 requires scalable technological solutions like Climeworks, which he compares to the rapid cost reduction seen in solar PV.

    Energy & climate techStarting a product company
    9 chapters

  • How I Built This · 37m

    HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher

    Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and CEO of Climeworks, explains how he and co-founder Christoph Gebald built the world’s largest direct air capture facility, the Orca plant in Iceland, which removes 4,000 tons of CO2 annually. Wurzbacher details the company's evolution from selling captured CO2 to Coca-Cola and greenhouses to providing permanent carbon removal services for corporate clients like Microsoft and private individuals. He discusses the massive scaling challenges, including the need for 10 billion tons of annual removal by 2050, the capital intensity of hardware, and the strategic importance of pairing capture facilities with renewable energy sources like geothermal power.

    Energy & climate techStarting a product company
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 30m

    Literally unearthing a climate solution with Cody Finke of Brimstone

    Cody Finke, co-founder and CEO of Brimstone, explains how his company is decarbonizing cement production by replacing limestone with calcium silicate rocks like basalt. He details the chemical process that eliminates process emissions and creates a magnesium byproduct that passively sequesters CO2, making the material carbon-negative. Finke discusses the strategic pivot from developing novel materials to producing ordinary Portland cement to ensure rapid adoption by the construction industry, and outlines the path from lab validation to pilot plants and eventual commercial scaling.

    Materials & manufacturing processesEnergy & climate tech
    8 chapters

  • Catalyst · 40m

    DAC’s bumpy road to commercial scale

    Andreas Aepli, CFO of Climeworks, discusses the operational and financial challenges of scaling direct-air capture (DAC) technology, drawing on lessons from their Orca and Mammoth plants. He details specific technical hurdles like supply chain quality fluctuations, extreme weather impacts, and CO2 purity requirements that delayed reaching full capacity. Aepli also explains Climeworks' strategy of raising large equity rounds to de-risk technology before transitioning to project finance, and outlines the evolving buyer landscape dominated by Microsoft and the need for long-term, indexed contracts to ensure bankability.

    Scaling productionFundraising & investors
    5 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hardware to Save a Planet. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.