Climeworks Opens the World’s Largest Direct Air Capture Innovation Hub

Key takeaways:

• Climeworks launches the largest innovation center for Direct Air Capture, employing over 50 engineers in Zurich, Switzerland.

• The center is designed to reduce the cost and increase the efficiency of direct air capture, addressing the main barrier to global scale-up.

• By uniting key research and development under one roof, the center speeds up innovation and large-scale deployment.

Zurich, Switzerland – December 4, 2025 – Climeworks today announces the inauguration of its Direct Air Capture (DAC) Innovation Center, the world’s largest innovation facility of its kind dedicated to next-generation DAC technology; a decisive step in its strategy to make carbon removal scalable and globally affordable.

The Climeworks DAC Innovation Center unites more than 50 engineers, chemists, and technology specialists under one roof to tackle the sector’s biggest challenge: driving down the cost of carbon removal. By accelerating breakthroughs in sorbent performance, energy efficiency, and system design, the facility will help deliver on Climeworks’ recent technology leaps.

A Strategic Engine for Scaling

Building on more than 15 years of experience, the DAC Innovation Center is designed as the engine room for Climeworks’ DAC cost-down and scale-up strategy. It brings together all key elements of DAC development under one roof:

• Advanced material science: developing next-generation sorbent materials
  
• Integrated prototyping: small- and mid-scale test facilities bridging lab innovation and real-world deployment
  
• System optimization: refining energy use, modularity, and scalability for global roll-out
  
• Reliability testing: ensuring durability across diverse climates and operating conditions
  

This integrated approach is part of Climeworks’ global growth pipeline and will shorten innovation cycles, reduce deployment risk, and accelerate the pathway to large-scale removals.

Showcasing Carbon Removal Solutions

Alongside the DAC Innovation Center, Climeworks is also opening its Carbon Removal Exhibition – a space where visitors can experience carbon removal firsthand. The exhibition connects direct air capture with other leading carbon removal technologies, highlighting their benefits for economies and communities worldwide.

A Hub in a World-Class Innovation Ecosystem

The DAC Innovation Center benefits from Switzerland’s thriving climate innovation ecosystem and engineering talents. Located between Zurich’s city center and airport, it ensures close integration between research, development, and deployment, reinforcing Switzerland’s role as a global leader in industrial innovation.

“The world needs carbon removals at massive scale – and that means cost reduction is mission-critical. The Climeworks DAC Innovation Center is how we turn our recent breakthroughs into deployable, efficient, more affordable solutions. Combined with our operating plants in Iceland, this facility positions Climeworks to lead the next phase of global carbon removal,” said Jan Wurzbacher, Co-CEO of Climeworks.

“What makes this center unique is that it brings scientists and engineers together at an unprecedented scale under one roof to accelerate learning and innovation. By testing and refining our technology collaboratively, we can move faster toward reducing the cost of carbon removal and deploying it at scale,” said Helin Cox, CTO of Climeworks.

About Climeworks

Climeworks is a leading high-quality carbon removal provider, combining decades of expertise in Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology with holistic carbon removal solutions.

Climeworks offers an end-to-end enterprise service for premium carbon removal. Its tailored portfolios of nature-based and engineered solutions are designed to maximize business value and minimize risks. The company runs the world's first two DAC plants in Iceland, demonstrating its core commitment to high-quality carbon removal that is backed by over 15 years of pioneering research, development, and deployment.

By advancing the most reliable solutions in the market, Climeworks accelerates the global transition to net zero, unlocking economic value for businesses, governments, and society.