Heirloom Carbon Technologies, a direct air capture (DAC) company, opened the first commercial DAC facility in the United States in Tracy, California on November 9, 2023. The facility is fully powered by renewable energy and is expected to capture up to 1,000 tons of CO2 per year, which will be permanently sequestered in concrete through a partnership with CarbonCure Technologies.

The Tracy facility was constructed with union labor and is consistent with Heirloom’s recently-outlined principles for the responsible deployment of carbon removal. These principles include commitments that no carbon dioxide removed will be used for enhanced oil recovery and that no equity will be granted to companies whose core business is the production of oil and gas.

Heirloom also announced a community governance model, which will kick off in January 2024. This model will convene community groups across the City of Tracy and the broader San Joaquin County to bring together the climate technology industry and local concerned citizens. The process will gather routine community feedback on the facility and its operations and help to steer input for how Heirloom will provide financial and programmatic investments in community organizations.

Heirloom’s technology uses limestone, an abundant, easy-to-source, and inexpensive material, to pull CO2 from the air. The company’s goal is to remove 1 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2035, which represents 20% of today’s annual U.S. emissions and 10% of global carbon removal needed annually by 2050.

Related Article: Microsoft to Purchase 315,000 Metric Tons of CO2 removal from Heirloom

Original Quotes:

• Shashank Samala, CEO and Co-Founder of Heirloom: “This first commercial direct air capture facility is the closest thing on Earth that we have to a time machine, because it can turn back the clock on climate change by removing carbon dioxide that has already been emitted into our atmosphere.”
• Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy: “Heirloom Carbon Technologies, right here in Tracy, California, is the blueprint for how America can beat climate change.”
• Gavin Newsom, Governor of California: “Projects like this Heirloom facility are exactly the sort of big and innovative ideas that we’re embracing – using renewable energy to directly remove pollution from our air, all while creating good-paying jobs in the Central Valley. California is creating the model for expanding the economy and fighting climate change.”