The challenge
Unreliable supply of CO2
Demand for carbon dioxide (CO2) gas is high and a multi-billion-dollar market.
CO2 is needed for industrial and commercial applications ranging from beverage carbonation and industrial cleaning, to food production, food packaging and chemical processes.
Many companies access CO2 from suppliers, often at long distances. However, the current supply chain is unreliable and prone to shortages, with countries having experienced several CO2 shortages in the past decade.
Some companies choose to generate their own supply of CO2. A common method for generating CO2 is by burning natural gas, where the exhaust gas (comprised mostly CO2) is cooled and purified. This method is subject to prices and supply of natural gas as well as large purification equipment.
The food production industry, for example, would welcome a new technology that can deliver CO2 on-site, on-demand.
There is an opportunity to capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere and put it to better use.
Our response
Capturing CO2 from the atmosphere
We developed Airthena™, a simple and practical solution for CO2 generation.
This exciting technology captures CO2 from ambient air and recycles it for use onsite, on-the-spot, enabling companies to generate their own supply and alleviate transportation or steam costs.
Using only air and electricity as inputs, Airthena™ takes advantage of tiny metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) sponges that work to selectively capture and store CO2.
Airthena™ is cost-effective, efficient, sustainable and environmentally-friendly.
The Airthena™ unit was developed in partnership with engineers and materials scientists from Monash University, Energy Infrastructure and Resources and H2H Energy, with funding from the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.
The results
Scaling up a solution ready for market
Our latest Airthena™ unit is capable of capturing two tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere a year and is suitable for small-scale applications, such as beverage carbonation and industrial cleaning.
While Airthena™ won't make any measurable impact on cutting global CO2 emissions at its current scale, it will help businesses with a more reliable source of the gas for their everyday operations.
We're now ready to work with industry to reduce the cost of the unit for small scale applications and/or scale up the technology for larger applications such as food production.