Climeworks launches DAC-3 plant in Italy

In Italy, Swiss-based Climeworks launched a second-generation Direct Air Capture plant (DAC-3) in Troia, Apulia, it’s third carbon capture plant so far. Installed in July and now in operation, this plant is part of the Horizon 2020 research project STORE&GO and will demonstrate the viability of large-volume energy storage through Power-to-Fuel technology in real life applications and will be operated for 4,000 hours over the next 17 months.

The new plant consists of three DAC collectors that use Climeworks’ latest technology and require less energy than the plant they installed in Hinwil. The plant will filter up to 150 tons of CO2 from ambient air per year. Simultaneously, an alkaline electrolyser (1.2 MW) locally generates 240 cubic meters of renewable hydrogen per hour by making use of excess on-site photovoltaic energy. The captured CO2 and renewable hydrogen are then catalytically methanated (a process called Power-to-Gas) in modular reactors by French company ATMOSTAT. The methane is then liquified and used to fuel natural gas lorries.