Air as a raw material: Direct Air Capture, and the plant that began in Alkmaar

Lecture by Peter Hauwert
(Technology Development Lead for CO₂ Cleanup)

To meet the Paris climate targets, large-scale CO₂ removal is needed — both nature-based solutions, such as planting trees, and engineered solutions, such as Direct Air Capture (DAC). According to IEA forecasts, DAC alone must scale up to over 1 billion tonnes per year by 2050.

We are still a long way from that today: globally, only around 1,200 tonnes of CO₂ have actually been captured and certified cumulatively since 2022. This is not because CO₂ is unimportant — at over 420 ppm, the concentration is already around 50 per cent higher than before the Industrial Revolution and is driving climate change — but because that concentration is, in absolute terms, extremely low: capturing CO₂ from the air is one of the most challenging technical tasks in the energy transition.

Peter Hauwert (Technology Development Lead at CO2 Cleanup) takes us from the climate challenge — the Paris Agreement, the Keeling curve — to the current state of the DAC market, and highlights where current technology falls short: high energy costs due to thermal regeneration and expensive installations. He then delves into CO2 Cleanup’s approach: an electrochemical alternative that tackles precisely those two bottlenecks, including concrete figures and visuals of the journey from pilot to full-scale plant. An interesting detail: that first plant isn’t far away, but right here in Alkmaar.

The evening concludes with an outlook on DAC as a technology platform, market developments, and an open invitation: if you have the knowledge, experience or interest to get involved – whether as an expert, a future buyer of green CO₂, or simply out of curiosity – please feel free to have a chat afterwards.

Agenda

Free admission

You pay for your own drinks

Organisation

Alkmaar Group in collaboration with the North-West Region