Noya, a startup founded by MIT graduate Josh Santos, aims to accelerate direct-air carbon removal with a low-power, modular system that can be mass-manufactured and deployed globally. According to a Nov. 1 press release, the company intends to power its system using renewable energy and place its facilities near injection wells to store captured carbon underground.
“Think of our systems for direct air capture like solar panels for carbon negativity,” says Santos. “We can stack these boxes in a LEGO-like fashion to achieve scale in the field.”
Noya’s new systems will combine thousands of its modular units to create massive facilities that can capture millions of tons of CO2 right next to existing injection wells.
Each of Noya’s units is about the size of a solar panel at about 6 feet wide, 4.5 feet tall, and 1 foot thick. A fan blows air through tiny channels in each unit that contain Noya’s carbon capture material. The company’s material solution consists of an activated carbon monolith and a proprietary chemical feedstock that binds to the carbon in the air. When the material becomes saturated with carbon, electricity is applied to the material and a light vacuum collects a pure stream of carbon.
The goal is for each of Noya’s modules to remove about 60 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year.
