Waterford-based Irish company, NEG8 Carbon has been awarded the prestigious WCCUS Breakthrough Technology Award at the World CCUS Conference in Edinburgh which recognises the company’s outstanding technology which leads to affordable and scalable Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology.
The award highlights innovations that advance carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology through scientific and technical excellence. The winning technology must also demonstrate the potential for global deployment.
The WCCUS award was presented to Dr John Breen who as Chief Technology Officer leads the NEG8 Carbon technical team. The team comprises world-leading experts in chemistry and engineering, including Prof. Don MacElroy, Dr Cristina López Olmos, Seyed Mahdi Akbarimoosavi, Erik Malan and Alfred Jovin Rajan.
NEG8 Carbon received the award for its Electrostatic Direct Air Capture technology. Direct Air Capture systems remove CO₂ directly from ambient air. NEG8’s DAC approach combines low-temperature sorbent regeneration with industrial heat reuse. This allows heat that may otherwise be rejected by industrial facilities to be used as an energy input for the carbon removal process. The result is affordable decarbonisation and sustainable CO2 feedstock production. This creates opportunities to integrate DAC with sectors such as data centres, industrial facilities and hydrogen producers. An added benefit is pure water production as a by-product: 2 tonnes of water for every 1 tonne of CO2 captured.
Furthermore, the captured CO₂ provides a revenue generating avenue as it can be stored and sold as carbon credits, or alternatively, it can be used in applications such as eFuels manufacturing.
NEG8 Carbon’s DAC technology has progressed to a technical readiness level that positions it for scale-up to commercial carbon dioxide removal.
For NEG8 Carbon, the award provides independent recognition of the achievements in inventing and developing its Electrostatic Direct Air Capture platform. NEG8 Carbon has a strong IP portfolio with two patents for its electrostatic adsorber technology. NEG8 Carbon’s technology represents a step-change for the Direct Air Capture industry. As demand grows for permanent carbon removal operating at scale, the company continues to focus on reusing waste heat, reducing energy consumption and lowering the cost of capture.
