Svante Commissions Carbon Capture, Removal Filter Gigafactory in Canada

Carbon capture and removal tech company Svante on May 13 said it completed commissioning of what it called the world’s first gigafactory producing commercial-scale carbon capture and removal filters.

Located in Canada’s Burnaby, British Columbia, the 141,000-sq-ft Redwood facility is capable of manufacturing enough solid sorbent-based filters to capture up to 10 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, equivalent to the emissions of more than 27 million cars, Svante said in a news release.

“This gigafactory is a critical step forward in building the infrastructure necessary to scale up the carbon management industry and to build a marketplace for physical CO₂,” said Svante CEO Claude Letourneau. “This first-of-a-kind manufacturing facility is a demonstration of what’s possible when technology and climate ambition align to lend nature a hand in managing global CO₂ emissions.”

Svante’s patented structured sorbent filters are coated with metal-organic framework (MOF). The next-generation technology is considered more energy efficient and resistant to degradation with a lower cost. As explained on the company’s website, the “MOF captures CO₂ from diluted flue gas streams with high capacity and selectivity over water. It captures 95% of the total CO₂ emitted from industrial sources, adsorbing CO₂ using direct low-pressure steam injection for regeneration.”

The technology is already in use at several carbon capture pilot projects, including one at Chevron’s Kern River asset in California’s San Joaquin Valley, as well as Lafarge’s Richmond Cement Plant in British Columbia, Canada, Svante said.

Climeworks is also among Svante’s customers, it said. In related news, Climeworks on May 13 said it completed testing of Svante’s structured adsorbents at its test facility in Muttenz, Switzerland. The results validated Climeworks’ Generation 3 Direct Air Capture technology, confirming Svante’s adsorbents cut energy use in half and doubled CO₂ capture capacity compared to Climeworks’ Gen 2 technology in Iceland, across more than 1,300 cycles.

Svante and Samsung E&A also announced they plan to jointly develop standardized skid-mounted modular carbon capture plants based on Svante’s novel VeloxoTherm solid sorbent-based carbon capture filter technology.

The partnership aims to offer industrial customers a one-stop shop via an integrated project delivery model for carbon capture plants, among other objectives, according to a news release.

“During the project execution phase, it is anticipated that SAMSUNG E&A will be the exclusive EPF [engineering, procurement and fabrication] supplier of skid-mounted modules for CO₂ capture plants, while Svante will supply its patented carbon capture machines (contactors) and filter beds,” the release states. “This collaborative approach to building large industrial facilities is shown to be effective at optimizing industrial project management and performance.”