Los Angeles-based Avnos Inc., a direct air capture (DAC) company, began its first operational commercial pilot project of its Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC) in Bakersfield, California, the company said in a Nov. 6 press release.

Developed in partnership with Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the HDAC pilot delivers the world’s first water-positive DAC solution.

In launching this system, Avnos said it has inverted the water paradigm in DAC — producing 5 tons of liquid distilled water per ton of CO2 captured, compared to up to 10 tons of water consumption per ton of CO2 captured in other DAC approaches.

As a result, Avnos opens the geographic and climatic operating range for DAC to many more regions around the globe. The Bakersfield pilot will capture approximately 30 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide and produce 150 tons of water per year.

“This announcement marks a pivotal juncture for both our company and the industry,” said Will Kain, CEO at Avnos. "Removing legacy carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere is essential to addressing the negative effects of our changing climate, one of the most pressing issues of our lifetime. Doing so without further strain on our natural resources is something that the team at Avnos has worked tirelessly to achieve. We take a great deal of pride in launching this pilot, thereby proving the efficacy and scalability of our unique HDAC solution.”

Capturing water from the atmosphere allows Avnos to leverage a first-of-a-kind moisture-swing CO2 adsorbent material, which in turn eliminates the need for heat input and reduces energy consumption by more than 50% compared to other DAC technologies.

“The ability to scale carbon management projects while advancing the underlying technologies could be critical to achieving the state’s ambitious goal of sequestering 100 million metric tons of CO2 by 2045,” says Neil Navin, chief clean fuels officer at SoCalGas. “Carbon management, if developed at scale, could help reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, and represents a tremendous opportunity for economic development and the creation of high-quality jobs.”

This project follows a recent $80M strategic partnership announcement between Avnos, ConocoPhillips and JetBlue Technology Ventures, the corporate venture capital division of JetBlue, and Shell Ventures LLC, the U.S. venture capital arm of Shell aimed at expediting the implementation of Avnos' distinctive approach.

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