Japan Airlines invests in Heirloom Carbon Technologies

Japan Airlines Co., Ltd (JAL) announced its investment in California-based decarbonization developer Heirloom Carbon Technologies, Inc..

Heirloom specializes in Direct Air Capture, a negative emission technology that captures CO2 directly from the atmosphere.

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A Major Investment in Decarbonization

Yasushi Noda, JAL senior vice-president for general affairs, said of the investment: “We recognize this partnership as an important milestone in the development of global decarbonization solutions. Through Heirloom’s innovative Direct Air Capture technology, we aim to significantly advance our efforts towards Net Zero CO2 Emissions by 2050.”

Heirloom CEO Shashank Samala added: “We’re honored to receive this investment from JAL and look forward to working with them as a strategic partner to rapidly scale our CO2 removal technology to make meaningful progress in the fight against global temperature rise.”

This investment is part of JAL’s broader commitment to achieving Net Zero CO2 Emissions by 2050.

The investment follows JAL’s March 2024 CVC investment in U.S. venture firm Captura with Direct Ocean Capture, an upcoming negative emission technology.

JAL’s collaboration with Heirloom supports the diversification of future decarbonization approaches, including carbon credits generated from atmospheric CO2 removal and the advancement of CO2 removal technologies critical for global decarbonization.

How Does Heirloom’s Decarbonization Technology Work?

Limestone has been absorbing and fixing atmospheric CO2 since time immemorial, helping to keep atmospheric CO2 concentrations low.

Heirloom leverages this natural property by heating limestone with renewable energy to extract CO2, then allowing it to reabsorb CO2 from the atmosphere like a sponge.

This innovative approach enables the artificial collection of large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere at a low cost.