Location

Location is Key to Affordable and Scalable Direct Air Capture


With DAC, Location is Key

Different locations have different conditions of temperature, humidity, and pressure that particularly impact the capture step of a DAC process, with each DAC technology having an optimal location on Earth which will reduce its OPEX. For example, TerraFixing's DAC technology thrives in cold dry climates allowing us to achieve the lowest energy requirements in the DAC space of 1 MWh/tCO2. 

Some DAC technologies have severe limitations that prevent them from working in particular geographical locations due to their ambient atmospheric conditions. For absorption technologies such as hydroxide solutions of Carbon Engineering or amines on solid supports of Climeworks/Global Thermostat, this is the temperature which the absorbent freezes. This allows us as TerraFixing to offer DAC in cold climates of Canada, Norway, Alaska, Russia, Finland, Greenland, and Antarctica and use the benefits of cold climates.

TerraFixing's Location and Scale Advantage

Ideal Locations - Scaling to Gigaton Capture

Any competitive DAC solution to global warming needs to place its DAC plant in an ideal climate near a sequestration site and a clean cheap abundant energy source to be the most economical. Missing just one of these factors will make the technology significantly more expensive. On top of this, other considerations should be made particularly with regards to scaling the energy source to accommodate gigaton capture, which requires a lot of energy. Could you have a gigaton DAC powered by renewables on the east coast of the USA when the renewable power has already developed & utilized, compete for land usages, deal with NIMBYism, and potentially obstruct the plentiful biodiverse fauna & flora of that region? Good luck. Locating your DAC plant in a remote cold dry windswept region with unlimited scalability is a stronger, better bet for a DAC solution.

TerraFixing's Ideal Location

Cold dry climates include Canada, Norway, Alaska, Russia, Finland, Greenland, Tibetan plateau, Atacama Desert, and Antarctica have optimum conditions for our process. These locations have the world's best winds and untapped hydroelectricity which will provide the clean cheap abundant energy which will allow our technology to capture CO2 for the lowest $/tCO2. After capturing the CO2, we will be sequestrating the CO2 on-site into the earth in one of the many sequestration sites. To learn and understand our ideal locations more, explore the our maps of these locations.