Heirloom Unveils Commercial Direct Air Capture Facility in United States

Heirloom announced the opening of the United States’ first commercial direct air capture (DAC) facility, which will pull atmospheric CO₂ into limestone rock and concrete for permanent carbon sequestration. The facility is located in Tracy, CA, and was unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by local elected officials and the CEO of the PG&E Corporation.

Heirloom’s DAC facility is the first in the United States to capture CO₂, permanently sequester it, and receive commercial removal purchases. Powered by renewable energy from Ava Community Energy and built with union labor, the facility has reached approximately 1,000 hours of operation time. Through a partnership with CarbonCure Technologies, CO₂ will be permanently sequestered in concrete storage vessels, which will allow the facility to have a capture capacity of up to 1,000 tons of CO₂ per year.

Vertical powder trays at Heirloom's DAC facility in Tracy, CA; Image Credits: Business Wire

The DAC facility will provide net removals to early buyers of Heirloom’s CO₂ removal credits, those of which include Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, and Klarna. Heirloom has made a commitment to not use removed CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery and that no equity will be granted to companies producing oil and gas.

Heirloom’s DAC technology relies on limestone to extract CO₂ from the air—a renewable energy-powered kiln heats the limestone to absorb CO₂ and leaves behind an absorbent mineral powder. This mineral powder is then spread on vertically stacked trays to pull further amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere. Once the powder is saturated with CO₂, it’s returned to the kiln for extraction and the process starts over. CO₂ captured from the mineral powder will either be stored in underground formations or embedded in CarbonCure’s concrete solution.

“This first commercial direct air capture facility can turn back the clock on climate change by removing carbon dioxide that has already been emitted into our atmosphere,” said Shashank Samala, Heirloom’s CEO and Co-Founder. “The capacity of Heirloom’s limestone-based technology to capture CO₂ from the air has gone from 1 kilogram of CO₂ to up to one million, or 1000 metric tons, in just over two years. We continue to deploy our technology at the urgent pace required to reach billion-ton scale and beyond in time to stop climate change.”