Just $100 per ton for direct air capture (DAC). That’s the unprecedented rate CO₂ removal specialists Holocene will charge to capture Google’s CO₂ emissions in terms of a $10 million agreement just signed by the two companies.

The rate is significantly lower than the current market rate of $600 or more per ton for similar DAC services and will involve an innovative approach Holocene describes as a “technological breakthrough”.

Holocene’s innovative approach to carbon capture involves two continuous chemical loops. The first loop draws in CO₂ from the air, while the second produces a pure stream of captured CO₂ for potential underground storage. This method is considered more efficient than existing techniques, and could significantly reduce the costs associated with CO₂ removal.

Since its inception in 2022, Holocene has secured funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Elon Musk’s Xprize Carbon Removal, and Bill Gates’s climate investment firm Breakthrough Energy.

The company currently operates a small pilot plant in Knoxville, Tennessee. The plan is to build a demonstration facility capable of capturing around 5,000 tons annually, and thereafter to construct a commercial plant capable of capturing 500,000 tons per year.

Under the agreement with Holocene, Google has committed to capturing 100,000 tons of CO₂ by 2032. While this commitment equates to removing approximately 20,000 petrol-powered cars from the roads for a year, it represents a small fraction of the 14.3 million metric tons of CO₂ pollution generated by Google within just the last year.

See also Google, Microsoft underreporting data center emissions by 662%: Report