Hardware Podcasts

ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher

How I Built This · 30 Mar 2023 · 38m

What this episode covers

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.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Climeworks, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Shopify, Audi
Products
Orca plant
Also
ETH Zurich

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 45m

    Using Cooling Towers to Scale Atmospheric CO2 Removal with Silvain Toromanoff, Co-Founder and CTO of NeoCarbon

    Silvain Toromanoff, Co-Founder and CTO of NeoCarbon, explains how his company uses waste heat from existing cooling towers to power Direct Air Capture (DAC), aiming to scale atmospheric CO2 removal efficiently. He details the technical challenges of their vacuum temperature swing reactor, the business model of selling units to utilization customers like breweries, and the strategic decision to leverage existing industrial infrastructure rather than building new plants. Toromanoff also discusses the supply chain difficulties faced by early-stage hardware startups and the ambitious goal of reaching megaton-scale removal by 2030.

    Energy & climate techStarting a product company
    10 chapters

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 41m

    Fostering a Circular Carbon Economy with Direct Air Capture: Insights from Rob van Straten of Skytree

    Rob van Straten, CEO of Skytree, explains how the company pivoted from an automotive CO2 scrubber concept to building modular Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems for vertical farms and large-scale carbon removal parks. He details Skytree’s strategy of mass-producing transportable units to drive down costs and enable rapid iteration, contrasting this with the site-based approach of competitors like Climeworks. Van Straten discusses the technical challenges of sorbent lifetime, the shift to vacuum-based temperature swing adsorption, and the importance of integrating waste heat to minimize the carbon footprint of the capture process.

    Energy & climate techScaling production
    5 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

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 38m

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

    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.

    Materials & manufacturing processesScaling production
    7 chapters

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 43m

    Scalability, Sustainability, and Cost Efficiency in Direct Air Capture (DAC) for CO2 Removal with Julian Turecek of AspiraDAC

    Julian Turecek, CEO of AspiraDAC, explains how his company uses metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and integrated solar power to create modular direct air capture (DAC) units. He details the strategic decision to integrate energy supply with capture technology to ensure 24/7 renewable energy and avoid grid emissions, which is critical for lifecycle assessments. Turecek outlines AspiraDAC's scaling roadmap from 1-ton prototypes to 1,000,000-ton gigaton-scale projects, aiming for a cost target of $100 per ton by leveraging manufacturing lessons from the solar PV and automotive industries.

    Energy & climate techMaterials & manufacturing processes
    10 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by How I Built This. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.