Airthena™: capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

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.

Close up of metal organic framework crystal (MOFs)

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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.