Los Alamos-based Spiritus has inked a Joint Development Agreement with Aramco’s Research & Development Center (R&DC) to advance its next-scale Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology.
Through this partnership, the two companies will work on the engineering and development of a 100-ton-per-year DAC pilot deployment.
To that end, this collaboration will combine the proprietary high-capacity sorbent DAC technology developed by Spiritus with Aramco R&DC’s advanced process engineering and heat-integration capabilities.
The pilot deployment is envisioned to serve as a step toward lower-cost carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions and will explore pathways for lowering the price of DAC to $100 per ton.
“The companies that figure out how to make DAC cheap and modular will end up supplying decarbonization infrastructure to the hardest-to-abate sectors on the planet, not just carbon credits to sustainability teams,” said Spiritus in a publication. “That’s the market we’re building toward, and partners like Aramco are how we get there faster.”
This Joint Development Agreement builds on a standing relationship between Spiritus and Aramco, which tracks back to 2023, when Aramco Ventures made an equity investment in the DAC company.
In 2024, the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a technical collaboration to enhance Spiritus’ novel sorbent technology and explore potential pilots and scale deployment within Saudi Arabia.
Spiritus has created a scalable and modular system for low-cost DAC and sequestration (DAC+S), as part of its mission of making carbon removal an accessible tool in the global fight against climate change.
Relevant: Spiritus And Aramco Sign Historic Direct Air Capture Agreement
The company has two ongoing projects, including its flagship Orchard One initiative in Casper, Wyoming, and the Pueblo of Nambé project in New Mexico.
Through its collaboration with the Aramco R&DC, Spiritus will work to unlock DAC solutions that can tackle residual CO2 emissions from heavy polluting sectors at a price that will make this option available to a broader client list.
Commenting on the newly signed agreement, Aramco Ventures shared in a publication, “We’re proud to support Spiritus on this milestone as they work to advance practical and scalable carbon capture technologies globally.”
Read more: Spiritus Raises $30m In Series A Funding To Scale DAC
