Real-world Testing Proves Climeworks’ Gen 3 Efficiency Leap With Svante’s Structured Adsorbents

Climeworks has completed large-scale testing of Svante’s structured adsorbents, confirming Gen 3 breakthroughs: double the CO₂ capture capacity and half the energy use across 1,300+ cycles in real-world conditions.

Running from May 2024 to January 2025, Climeworks has completed the first test phase of Svante’s structured adsorbent technology at its large-scale test facility in Muttenz, Switzerland, marking a major milestone in the validation of its Generation 3 Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology. The results confirm anticipated breakthroughs: the newest generation of technology featuring Svante’s structured adsorbents cuts energy use in half while doubling CO₂ capture capacity compared to the current implementation of Climeworks’ Gen 2 technology in Iceland, maintaining strong performance throughout 1,300+ cycles and across a wide range of real-world conditions.

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Ensuring performance and reliability before scaling up

Testing DAC technology at full scale and under real-world conditions is critical to validating performance and durability before large-scale deployment, reducing risks, accelerating learning, and ensuring the technology delivers as promised. While initial results based on in-field observations were shared during the Climeworks Carbon Removal Summit in 2024, these have now been validated across a wide range of temperatures spanning sub-freezing to temperature conditions and humidity environments ranging from semi-arid to fully saturated air. Crucially, Svante’s structure demonstrated mechanical stability and maintained high performance over time, with results within +/-5 percent accuracy of the performance predictions.

Jan Wurzbacher, Co-CEO of Climeworks

You can’t overstate the importance of rigorous testing before building. With this proof in hand, we can confidently say that our Gen 3 tech is engineered for real-world conditions and real-world impact. By partnering with suppliers like Svante, we’re walking the steep DAC learning curve, making it more efficient and more cost-effective with every new technology iteration.

Structured adsorbent as a DAC gamechanger

With Generation 3, Climeworks uses structured adsorbents for its DAC operations. Engineered with precision, the Svante structured adsorbents enable faster CO₂ adsorption and desorption, allowing more cycling times while maintaining a low resistance to air flow, all of which are key to driving down energy use while increasing capture capacity per unit. Additionally, Svante’s structure provides greater mechanical stability, thus durability, and has a low CO₂ footprint in manufacturing—all major advantages for a DAC system.

Claude Letourneau, President & CEO of Svante

We’re proud to power the next generation of DAC with Climeworks. With a second version of our structure already being tested, we’re excited about this breakthrough and more to come.

A growing ecosystem of DAC-ready suppliers

Scaling Direct Air Capture relies on a robust ecosystem of specialized suppliers growing alongside technology developers. Svante is a leading example of this new generation of partners: companies investing in DAC-specific solutions and scaling their capabilities in step with Climeworks. Long-term collaborations like this one help professionalize and structure the DAC supply chain—a crucial development for turning carbon removal into a mature, global industry.