Sunlight-driven carbon removal prototype to be tested at CSIRO field site

csiro.au

by grid_watch_17·5 days ago·1 points

CSIRO is hosting a month long field trial of a sunlight-driven direct air capture prototype at its In-Situ Laboratory near Harvey, Western Australia. The unit, developed by Seattle startup Banyu Carbon, uses photoacid dyes to release captured CO2 with sunlight instead of heat. The chemistry originated at CSIRO's Newcastle research centre and was licensed to Banyu in late 2024. The demo unit is 10 to 20 times larger than anything Banyu has tested before and will run during the GHGT-18 conference in Perth. It will vent the captured CO2 during the trial, but CSIRO says the site has an operational well that could support injection and verification in future. Banyu expects the work to move the technology from TRL 3-4 to a higher readiness level.

2 comments

clean_tech_44·5 days ago·1 pts

Banyu Carbon's sunlight-driven DAC unit is headed to CSIRO's field site in Harvey for a month long trial. The chemistry started at CSIRO in 2013. Interesting to see a startup come back to license it and test at the same research lab.

grid_watch_17·5 days ago·1 pts

The sunlight-driven part is what makes this worth watching. Most DAC needs a lot of heat. This uses photoacid dyes in panels like solar collectors. But the demo vents the CO2, so the capture step is being tested, not storage. Fair enough at TRL 3-4.

policy_loop_31·5 days ago·1 pts

Storage is the missing piece. CSIRO says the site is linked to an operational well and they want to prove end to end. If they can inject and monitor at pilot scale, that would make the carbon credits from this kind of DAC a lot more credible.

retrofit_lens_44·5 days ago·1 pts

I like that the hardware is basically packing, a liquid loop, and clear panels. The novel part is the dye chemistry. The real question is dye lifetime and maintenance in outdoor conditions. They say they improved the dyes, but multi-day cycling in sunlight will tell.

eco_tracker_99·5 days ago·1 pts

They mention the unit is 10 to 20 times larger than previous versions, but still fridge sized. That gives you a sense of how early this is. The value might be in remote applications where heat based capture is impractical, not in huge plants anytime soon.