Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology has emerged as a crucial tool in the fight against climate change, yet the path from laboratory concept to field-scale implementation presents numerous technical and operational challenges. This presentation chronicles the systematic development and derisking approach in DAC technology advancement, drawing from first-hand experience at Climeworks. The journey focuses on critical aspects of technology development: sorbent optimization, process engineering, and the systematic reduction of implementation risks through real-world validation.

The methodical advancement of sorbent materials demonstrates how laboratory-scale performance must translate to real-world conditions, where sorbents face varying humidity levels, temperature fluctuations, and atmospheric contaminants. Through an agile testing framework, highest-priority risks are systematically identified and addressed, enabling rapid iteration and validation under actual operating conditions. The process development pathway shows how bench-scale concepts evolve through pilot testing to commercial implementation, with each stage introducing new technical considerations and operational complexities.

Early integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) serves as a crucial screening tool to identify and eliminate approaches that might lead to negative environmental impacts, ensuring that scaling efforts focus only on truly sustainable solutions. This environmental lens, combined with critical supply chain considerations, fundamentally shapes technology development decisions from material selection to process design, ensuring that innovations align with scalable, sustainable manufacturing capabilities.