Our First Direct Air Capture Prototype Successfully Removes CO₂ from Ambient Air
We are excited to announce an important milestone for our team at Carbon Capture for Everyone (CC4E): our first prototype has successfully captured carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from ambient air.
During recent testing, the prototype demonstrated measurable CO₂ removal within its capture chamber, validating the core principles behind our system architecture, sensing technology, and sorbent capture cycle.
While this is an early prototype, the results mark a critical step forward in our mission to make carbon removal accessible, scalable, and deployable anywhere in the world.
This milestone represents more than just a technical success. It brings us closer to a future where carbon capture is no longer limited to massive industrial facilities but can instead be distributed across communities, businesses, and individuals globally.
Why Removing CO₂ from the Atmosphere Matters
Reducing emissions is essential to addressing climate change, but according to leading climate research, emissions reductions alone will not be enough.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide will need to be removed from the atmosphere this century to limit global temperature rise.
• Carbon dioxide removal technologies help by:
• Removing existing CO₂ already in the atmosphere
• Balancing hard-to-eliminate emissions
• Supporting global net-zero targets
One of the most promising approaches to achieving this is Direct Air Capture (DAC).
What is Direct Air Capture (DAC)?
Direct Air Capture is a technology designed to remove carbon dioxide directly from ambient air, rather than from industrial exhaust streams. DAC systems typically operate through three core steps:
- Air Intake: Ambient air is drawn through a capture unit.
- CO₂ Capture: A chemical sorbent selectively binds with carbon dioxide molecules.
- CO₂ Release and Storage or Use: The captured CO₂ is separated from the sorbent and can then be stored permanently or reused in industrial processes.
Unlike traditional carbon capture technologies that operate at power plants or factories, DAC removes carbon that has already accumulated in the atmosphere.
However, most existing DAC solutions rely on large centralised infrastructure, which can be costly and difficult to scale globally. This is where our approach differs.
Our Vision: Decentralised Carbon Capture
At Carbon Capture for Everyone, we believe the future of carbon removal should be distributed and accessible.
Rather than relying solely on massive centralised DAC plants, our goal is to develop smaller modular carbon capture units that can be deployed across a wide range of environments. Potential deployment locations could include:
• Commercial buildings
• Logistics centres
• Public infrastructure
• Residential environments
• Distributed energy systems
By decentralising carbon capture, we aim to enable many smaller contributions to atmospheric carbon removal, creating a scalable global network of capture systems.
This approach aligns with our mission: making carbon capture technology accessible to everyone.
Inside the Prototype: How Our System Works
Our first working prototype was designed to validate the key engineering principles behind our carbon capture system. The prototype integrates several core subsystems:
Airflow and Capture Chamber
Ambient air is drawn through a specially designed capture chamber where the carbon capture process takes place. Airflow management is critical to ensuring sufficient contact between the air stream and the sorbent material.
Liquid Sorbent Cycle
Within the capture chamber, a liquid sorbent is used to selectively bind carbon dioxide molecules from the passing air stream. Sorbent systems are widely used in carbon capture technologies due to their ability to efficiently absorb CO₂.
The sorbent can later be regenerated, allowing the CO₂ to be released for storage or further processing while the sorbent is reused in the capture cycle.
Integrated Sensor Monitoring
The prototype includes a custom sensing architecture that continuously measures CO₂ concentration levels before and after the capture chamber.
This monitoring system allows us to evaluate capture performance in real time and verify that CO₂ is being actively removed from the airflow.
Electronics and Control Systems
A dedicated electronics system manages sensor data, monitors environmental conditions, and enables the prototype to operate in a controlled and repeatable testing environment.
Together, these systems allow us to evaluate capture performance and identify opportunities for optimisation in future designs.
Prototype Testing and Early Results
During testing, the prototype demonstrated a clear reduction in CO₂ concentration within the capture chamber compared to ambient air levels. This difference indicates that the system successfully captured carbon dioxide from the air stream as it passed through the sorbent cycle.
While the prototype is still in an early development stage, the results validate several critical aspects of our system:
• The airflow and chamber design function as intended.
• The sorbent capture cycle successfully binds CO₂.
• The sensor architecture accurately detects concentration changes.
• The integrated electronics platform enables reliable monitoring.
These results confirm that our design concept is viable and provide valuable data to guide the next phase of development.
Why This Milestone Is Important
Developing carbon removal technologies is a complex challenge requiring advances in chemistry, engineering, and systems design.
For early-stage climate technology companies, demonstrating a working prototype is a major step forward. It proves that theoretical designs can translate into functional hardware capable of performing real-world carbon capture.
For Carbon Capture for Everyone, this milestone demonstrates that our decentralised carbon capture concept has real technical potential. It also strengthens our ability to:
• Refine the capture process.
• Improve energy efficiency.
• Scale the technology into deployable systems.
• Attract partners and collaborators in the climate tech ecosystem.
Building the Future of Carbon Removal
Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. Solving it will require a combination of emissions reduction, technological innovation, and large-scale carbon removal.
Direct Air Capture will likely play a crucial role in this transition, but scaling the technology globally will require new approaches.
At Carbon Capture for Everyone, we believe that distributed carbon capture systems could become an important part of the solution, enabling individuals, businesses, and communities to actively participate in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The successful operation of our first prototype is only the beginning.
As we continue to develop and refine this technology, our goal remains clear: to make carbon capture accessible, scalable, and impactful for everyone.
