Mission Zero-led Consortium Awarded £3M UK Government Contract to Pilot Breakthrough DAC Technology

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mission Zero Technologies (MZT) has been chosen to begin trialling their ground-breaking Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology previously developed with support from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP). Phase 1 of the project saw the completion of the R&D work, FEED activities, and deployment planning exercise; phase 2 will see this realised into a working pilot plant alongside partners Optimus and O.C.O Technology Ltd.

The project’s £3 million funding is part of a wider pool of funding for emerging climate technologies recently released through BEIS. “This £54 million government investment announced today will help establish a greenhouse gas removal industry in the UK, which could be worth billions to our economy, bringing in private investment and supporting the creation of new green jobs,” said Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Hands.

DAC is a carbon capture technology approach that focuses on removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere around us. Typically this requires significant amounts of heat and electricity and large commitments of capital, making the economics and commercialization timelines challenging.

MZT, a London-based startup, is disrupting the status quo with a modularized DAC technology that is projected to reduce both energy consumption as well as capture costs by over 4 times compared to today’s commercial offerings, with a roadmap to dropping below the $100/ton price point at commercial scales. Through partnership with Optimus and O.C.O, phase 2 will extend the application of this technology to reuse of the CO2 in the creation of Manufactured LimeStone, a valuable building material.

Shiladitya Ghosh, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, MZT, said “This programme is pivotal in our shared progress towards creating valuable materials from CO2 captured from the air. This has a monumental impact on the UK's and the world's journey to net zero and a carbon negative future.”

The scaled demonstration from phase 2 will be one of the first demonstrations of DAC integrating with a carbon-negative use case that both utilises and sequesters carbon (commonly known as CCU/CCS). While the project runs from mid 2022 to 2025, the plant is expected to come online in the middle of 2023. This will take MZT’s technology to TRL6*. Alongside developing the plant, MZT aims to involve local students and community organisations in knowledge dissemination activities about DAC.

*(TRL or Technological Readiness Level is a scale from 1-9, with 1 denoting basic research of an idea and 9 representing a fully-realised commercial implementation of a technology).

Chris West, CEO, Optimus, said: “Reversing climate change is the imperative of our generation, what could be more exciting to be involved in than a process that efficiently hoovers CO2 directly from the atmosphere! Having worked with Mission Zero now for almost 2 years, we have been inspired by their purpose from day 1 and are very excited to make our engineering design contribution towards the realisation of the pilot plant in phase 2 of this race.”

Further to this, the use of sequestered carbon in creating limestone will be a breakthrough in providing circular use cases for captured CO2. This is significant for providing a market for captured CO2 usage and creating building materials which permanently capture the CO2 and can be used for critical infrastructure.

Richard Skehens, chairman, O.C.O Technology, said: “There is no doubt carbon capture has huge potential and we are very excited to be involved in the next stage of this development. Combining Mission Zero’s DAC technologies with our own ability to use the CO2 in the manufacture of a carbon negative aggregate, is both a positive step for the environment and delivers practicality in the form of sustainable building materials for the future.”

This funding was awarded through phase 2 of the Direct Air Capture and other Greenhouse Gas Removal Technologies competition organised by BEIS. This is the first competition of its kind in the UK and is aimed at accelerating the development of early-stage technologies for removing greenhouse gases (gases such as CO2 that contribute to global warming) from the atmosphere. The proliferation of and public support for such technologies are critical for achieving Net Zero targets and mitigating climate change.

About MZT

Based in London, UK, Mission Zero Technologies is a young and exciting DAC startup, backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Anglo American, with a patent-pending breakthrough technology and is on a mission to close the carbon cycle. Since its incorporation in the summer of 2020 by spinning out from Deep Science Ventures, the company has won various accolades and has featured on multiple shortlists including the 2020 Diamond List. MZT is currently developing its first pilot for launch in 2023, in partnership with O.C.O Technology and is planning a first commercial project, Project Hajar, with 44.01. Visit https://www.missionzero.tech to learn more.

OCO

O.C.O Technology Ltd is a world leader in the permanent capture of CO2. Built on more than 20 years of award-winning research, O.C.O’s Accelerated Carbonation Technology (ACT) utilises carbon dioxide gas as a resource to treat and valorise a wide range of wastes, including Air Pollution Control residues (APCr). The ACT process transforms the waste material into an artificial aggregate – known as Manufactured LimeStone (M-LS). Because more CO2 is permanently captured than is used in the manufacturing process, M-LS has been recognised as the world’s first carbon negative aggregate. With a current turnover of some £20 million and UK operations in Suffolk, Leeds and Avonmouth, the company is broadening the use of its technology into other waste material markets worldwide, with a major concentration on the permanent capture of CO2 and supporting organisations in their drive towards cutting carbon emissions. For more information on O.C.O Technology, please visit https://www.oco.co.uk.

About Optimus

Optimus is a well-established, highly experienced, specialist engineering, consultancy and project delivery company who combine decades of proven expertise and strategic insight to deliver simple, responsive and cost-effective solutions to the energy industry. Optimus continues to diversify its services and capability into sustainable energy markets and providing decarbonisation solutions. Our multi-disciplined team brings deep technical know-how and time-served pragmatic project experience. This team will develop an engineering solution which will support Mission Zero in this exciting opportunity to move the dial on Direct Air Capture technology now and make a positive impact on the world for generations to come. We are absolutely delighted to be associated with this exceptional project. For more information on Optimus, please visit https://www.optimusaberdeen.com.

About BEIS (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy)

This funding has been made available from the UK government’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which aims to provide funding for developing technologies that enable the removal of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in the UK. This programme will support the design and feasibility of these technologies through to the demonstration of fully functioning pre-commercial units.