Direct Air Capture

If you look at the plan of the Climate Protection Foundation BaWü, negative emissions from 2030 onwards are part of the climate neutrality strategy. This means that emissions that cannot be avoided or reduced must be compensated. Here, there are the "classic" compensation projects, such as reforestation, but also the possibility of extracting CO₂ from the air and storing it in the long term - in short, DAC (direct air capture). One of the companies that are pioneers in this field of work is "Climeworks". Anna is responsible for the sales of the solutions and can give us an insight into the technology, the opportunities and the climeworks.

Anna, what exactly does Climeworks do and what does your business model look like?

Anna Schulenburg: Thank you Lisa! Climeworks filters CO₂ from the air and thus offers companies the opportunity to remove their CO₂ emissions permanently and safely. We can be seen as a classic service provider. Our service: carbon dioxide removal.
Some call our machines a CO₂ vacuum cleaner. So, our customers do not buy the vacuum cleaner themselves, but rather we suck the CO₂ out of the atmosphere for them. Clean thing.
Last year, we commissioned the world’s largest Direct Air Capture facility, Orca, in Iceland. Together with our partner Carbfix, we ensure that the CO₂ is mineralized deep underground - petrified, so to speak. This means that this CO₂ is removed from the atmosphere for millennia or even longer and no longer contributes to global warming. Now we are scaling the technology to make a relevant contribution to the 1.5C goal of Paris.
Every company is different and has different potentials for reducing and avoiding emissions - that is your challenge at Bosch Climate Solutions every day. Currently, not all emissions can be avoided. It is therefore important to permanently remove the unavoidable emissions from the atmosphere and not only to avoid them through offset certificates. We can only achieve net zero by removing the CO₂.

For which companies is the topic of interest? Are there already industries that are taking a pioneering role here?

Anna Schulenburg: Our customers have one thing in common: they are climate pioneers, take on responsibility and act. We see this in a wide variety of industries with pioneers such as Microsoft, BCG and Swiss Re, but also many medium-sized companies and small businesses. The important thing is to take the first step. We have to start now to expand CO₂ removal technologies if we want to reach net zero by 2050.
I am particularly pleased about the smaller companies that are taking responsibility and act on this topic out of personal conviction.

What motivates companies to invest here?

Anna Schulenburg: Direct Air Capture is convincing because it permanently and measurably removes CO₂ from the atmosphere. Here, we differ from many offsetting projects, which often have less precise figures. At Climeworks, we are convinced that we need all solutions at the same time. Reforestation and biodiversity, yes, but also technical CO₂ removal solutions, such as Direct Air Capture. We embed CO₂ back into the geosphere for thousands or millions of years, underground, where it was originally stored as crude oil or natural gas. With DAC, we can close the cycle of fossil CO₂ again - this is particularly impressive for technical customers.
In addition, our technology is scalable. We have already increased our capacity tenfold several times. This motivates our customers, the Climeworks team and all contributors that we offer a real solution that can make a difference in climate change. We are all part of a community that drives a vision of a climate-neutral future and let it become reality.

What are your expansion plans? How do you think the market will develop?

Anna Schulenburg: We want to remove 10 times more CO₂ from the air every 3 years. We are primarily motivated by the mission to make a significant contribution to CO₂ removal by the 2030s. With scaling, our prices will also fall: similar to the photovoltaic industry, which is now an integral part of sustainability strategies. Then we would also be well on the way to achieving gigaton capacity by 2050.
Our goals are ambitious, but the demand from customers and the support from governments and the population is huge. It inspires us to see that the drive of so many is now turning into concrete action.

Anna, is there anything else you would like to tell us?

Anna Schulenburg: The most important thing is to take the first step - now. 12 years ago, Climeworks removed milligrams of CO₂ from the air, now there are a million more. Hardly any company today can remove its entire footprint with us. But in addition to a rapid reduction in emissions, it is now time to include CO₂ removal in the sustainability strategy. And then we will also achieve net zero by 2050.