Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CAPTURE (Phlair Project to Undo Residual Emissions - construction and deployment of a minimum viable product the Gen3 stack capable of capturing 10 tonnes CO2 per year from the air.)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-11-01 bis 2025-10-31
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, the IPCC estimates 6 gigatonnes of CO2 must be removed annually by 2050. The EU strategy projects a 280 megatonnes carbon capture need by 2040, with 25% from Direct Air Capture (DAC), while Germany requires 45-80 megatonnes of cumulative negative emissions by 2045. Hence, DAC is a key technology for Europe's leadership in carbon management. DAC also enhances EU energy resiliency, especially when used for utilization and clean fuel production.
The CAPTURE project focuses on advancing Phlair’s electrochemical DAC technology that uses a proprietary, fully-electric, low-temperature, pH-swing process powered by renewable electricity. The project addresses three critical challenges of existing incumbent DAC approaches that lead to high costs: (1) the high energy intensity, (2) the limited compatibility with intermittent renewable power, and (3) the instability and degradation of organic sorbents. By leveraging inorganic salt chemistry and modular electrochemical stacks, Phlair’s technology provides a pathway to low-cost, and renewable-powered CO2 capture for carbon removal and utilization.
The project aims to advance Phlair's Hydrolyzer from TRL 5 to TRL 7 through a demonstration plant that builds the technical and economic basis for industrial scale-up. This milestone enables the next 1,000 t-CO2/year skid module and multi-kiloton CO2/year plants needed to deliver on the world’s first electrochemical DAC offtake. Building on 12 months of progress on the EIC-funded pilot, Phlair has secured a $30 million CDR offtake with customers including Google, JPMorgan, Stripe, H&M, and McKinsey.
The CAPTURE project focuses on advancing Phlair’s electrochemical DAC technology that uses a proprietary, fully-electric, low-temperature, pH-swing process powered by renewable electricity. The project addresses three critical challenges of existing incumbent DAC approaches that lead to high costs: (1) the high energy intensity, (2) the limited compatibility with intermittent renewable power, and (3) the instability and degradation of organic sorbents. By leveraging inorganic salt chemistry and modular electrochemical stacks, Phlair’s technology provides a pathway to low-cost, and renewable-powered CO2 capture for carbon removal and utilization.
The project aims to advance Phlair's Hydrolyzer from TRL 5 to TRL 7 through a demonstration plant that builds the technical and economic basis for industrial scale-up. This milestone enables the next 1,000 t-CO2/year skid module and multi-kiloton CO2/year plants needed to deliver on the world’s first electrochemical DAC offtake. Building on 12 months of progress on the EIC-funded pilot, Phlair has secured a $30 million CDR offtake with customers including Google, JPMorgan, Stripe, H&M, and McKinsey.
Phlair’s core Hydrolyzer technology is a modular electrochemical stack. Phlair has developed and tested the Hydrolyzer, reaching a commercially relevant cell-active area. The commercial-sized skid module under development in CAPTURE will host up to 20 stacks (Hydrolyzers). Phlair has already deployed one Hydrolyzer in the demo plant in Ismaning.
To achieve this, Phlair’s site in Ismaning was prepared for industrial-scale operations, as well as the construction of dedicated assembly and testing areas and the completion of a HAZOP analysis. In collaboration with Covestro experts, a comprehensive project plan was developed to guide the stack design and industrial scaling. Laboratory-scale testing of smaller-sized cells confirmed component compatibility using established PEM fuel-cell supply chains, leading to the successful construction and testing of the first A-sample prototype. Due to manufacturing constraints of catalyst-coated membranes, the initial active area design was revised to a smaller size, resulting in a stack with optimised manufacturability and mechanical stability. The team achieved successful leak and electrical testing, demonstrating uniform compression and scalable performance.
In parallel, two new patent applications were prepared, and a comprehensive Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) analysis conducted by Phlair’s legal partners confirmed no conflicting European patents. Developed under the CAPTURE project were the following two filings: (1) patent focuses on how fluids are introduced into and removed from each cell
compartment while ensuring robust sealing under compression, and (2) the second invention addresses the stability of the center compartment itself, preventing cavity collapse during operation and enabling the stacking of many cells without performance degradation. A robust supply chain for all stack components was established, with multiple qualified suppliers for critical parts.
Basic engineering activities for the demo plant were carried out as part of the next WP. Phlair delivered engineering documents including process flow diagrams and piping & instrumentation diagrams. Albeit the initial assumption to develop a 500 tCO2/year demo plant, challenges explicitly discussed in the progress meeting presentation led to deviations in plant capacity and location. Therefore, Phlair continued the project by successfully identifying critical long lead items and procurement for the plant and conducting a HAZOP analysis. These actions led to the engineering of a demo plant at Phlair’s HQ in Ismaning, de-risking the commercial-active area stacks, commercial-grade absorbers, and full end-to-end process operations. Phlair has successfully commissioned and operated the demonstration plant in Ismannig over multiple hours, already gathering critical data.
To achieve this, Phlair’s site in Ismaning was prepared for industrial-scale operations, as well as the construction of dedicated assembly and testing areas and the completion of a HAZOP analysis. In collaboration with Covestro experts, a comprehensive project plan was developed to guide the stack design and industrial scaling. Laboratory-scale testing of smaller-sized cells confirmed component compatibility using established PEM fuel-cell supply chains, leading to the successful construction and testing of the first A-sample prototype. Due to manufacturing constraints of catalyst-coated membranes, the initial active area design was revised to a smaller size, resulting in a stack with optimised manufacturability and mechanical stability. The team achieved successful leak and electrical testing, demonstrating uniform compression and scalable performance.
In parallel, two new patent applications were prepared, and a comprehensive Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) analysis conducted by Phlair’s legal partners confirmed no conflicting European patents. Developed under the CAPTURE project were the following two filings: (1) patent focuses on how fluids are introduced into and removed from each cell
compartment while ensuring robust sealing under compression, and (2) the second invention addresses the stability of the center compartment itself, preventing cavity collapse during operation and enabling the stacking of many cells without performance degradation. A robust supply chain for all stack components was established, with multiple qualified suppliers for critical parts.
Basic engineering activities for the demo plant were carried out as part of the next WP. Phlair delivered engineering documents including process flow diagrams and piping & instrumentation diagrams. Albeit the initial assumption to develop a 500 tCO2/year demo plant, challenges explicitly discussed in the progress meeting presentation led to deviations in plant capacity and location. Therefore, Phlair continued the project by successfully identifying critical long lead items and procurement for the plant and conducting a HAZOP analysis. These actions led to the engineering of a demo plant at Phlair’s HQ in Ismaning, de-risking the commercial-active area stacks, commercial-grade absorbers, and full end-to-end process operations. Phlair has successfully commissioned and operated the demonstration plant in Ismannig over multiple hours, already gathering critical data.
The demo plant in Ismaning marks a key validation step for electrochemical DAC. Operating with a commercial-sized active area, it provides real-world performance data and has achieved TÜV certification, confirming compliance with safety and technical standards for commercial deployment. The successful demonstration of load-flexible operation on intermittent solar power addresses a central challenge in integrating renewables with carbon capture. Thanks to its modular design, Phlair has already completed one retrofit to improve performance and is preparing a second to further reduce energy consumption, with energy efficiency remaining a top priority.
Phlair also reached important milestones in stack development, though full scale-up to a 42-cell stack is still underway. At this stage, a single-digit cell stack has been built, successfully leak-tested, and shown to match single-cell performance, confirming steady progress in scaling. The next steps focus on extending stack lifetime and finalizing the design by the end of 2025. To achieve this, Phlair is expanding testing capacity and drawing insights from the demo plant to reach manufacturing readiness for the stack, one of CAPTURE’s core objectives. The smaller-scale plant has proven invaluable for collecting operational data critical to validating the technology. Through targeted design iterations, Phlair defined the 1,000 t-CO2/year stack module as the commercial unit size for FOAK deployments, aimed at a capacity of 15,000 t-CO2/year.
Phlair also reached important milestones in stack development, though full scale-up to a 42-cell stack is still underway. At this stage, a single-digit cell stack has been built, successfully leak-tested, and shown to match single-cell performance, confirming steady progress in scaling. The next steps focus on extending stack lifetime and finalizing the design by the end of 2025. To achieve this, Phlair is expanding testing capacity and drawing insights from the demo plant to reach manufacturing readiness for the stack, one of CAPTURE’s core objectives. The smaller-scale plant has proven invaluable for collecting operational data critical to validating the technology. Through targeted design iterations, Phlair defined the 1,000 t-CO2/year stack module as the commercial unit size for FOAK deployments, aimed at a capacity of 15,000 t-CO2/year.