An innovative and sustainable chemistry developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory for capturing carbon dioxide from air has been licensed to Holocene, a Knoxville-based startup focused on designing and building plants that remove carbon dioxide from atmospheric air.

“ORNL is tackling climate change by developing numerous technologies that reduce or eliminate emissions,” said Susan Hubbard, ORNL deputy for science and technology. “But with billions of tons of carbon dioxide already in the air, we must capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow and reverse the effects of climate change.”

“Direct air capture allows us to collect legacy emissions,” said Radu Custelcean, a scientist in ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division and inventor of the licensed technology. “Our technology is one of the few approaches that can do that. It offers a new, energy-efficient approach to removing CO2 directly from air.”

In direct air capture, a large fan pulls air through a contacting chamber where the air interacts with chemical compounds that filter and capture carbon dioxide. The CO2 can then be released from the capture material and stored deep underground.