The nation’s first commercial direct air capture facility has opened in Tracy

From the outside, it’s unremarkable: A metallic building alongside a quiet road on the outskirts of Tracy. But on its opening day, people from all over the country traveled to see it. 

“This is the birth of a new species,” said Julio Friedmann, chief scientist of the consulting firm Carbon Direct and an attendee at the opening. “There's nothing like it on this earth … and if this plant succeeds commercially, then it gives us more ways to combat climate change.”

This direct air capture plant, built by the start-up Heirloom Technologies, sets a national precedent. It’s the first facility in the United States that can extract carbon from the air, permanently store it and sell carbon removal credits to customers. Heirloom has attracted the attention of companies like Microsoft, their biggest customer, who recently signed a long-term contract to purchase up to 315,000 tons of carbon removal. 

Carbon-capturing technology like Heirloom’s is also central to California’s emissions reductions goals. The state has an ambitious plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. However, some environmental groups have criticized the plan and said it relies too heavily on a nascent technology. 

Inside the facility itself, there are 40-foot-tall stacks of trays holding hydrated calcium oxide. It’s a chemical compound that naturally bonds with carbon dioxide drifting through the building. Once the calcium oxide and carbon come together, they become limestone. 

This process happens naturally but here, it’s sped up. 

Inside the Tracy direct air capture facility are 40-foot-tall stacks of trays holding hydrated calcium oxide. It’s a chemical compound that naturally bonds with carbon dioxide drifting through the building.Manola Secaira / CapRadio

“While that process takes months, if not years, if you do nothing to the process, we've now accelerated that down to just three days,” said Max Scholten, head of commercialization at Heirloom. 

Scholten acted as a tour guide during the facility’s grand opening, shepherding government officials and local groups through the building to showcase Heirloom’s process. Standing before the towers of trays, he said the captured carbon will later be extracted from the limestone and stored, permanently, in concrete. 

“This facility, when fully built out, will be capable of capturing up to 1,000 tons of CO2 per year,” he said. 

Scaling up this technology, and environmental concerns 

A lot of work remains before California can achieve its emissions reductions goals. The United States emits millions of tons of carbon annually. The Tracy facility can only capture the smallest fraction of that. 

Scholten described the facility as a “blueprint” as they scale up. 

“This is not the thing that gets us to help slow climate change,” Scholten said. “It's just the first step on that journey, so being able to build these rapidly in a modular way is really, really essential.”

Critics, including environmental groups, say state officials shouldn’t rely so heavily on nascent technologies to reduce emissions. When California’s air resources board finalized their climate change scoping plan in late 2022 — a plan that outlines the state’s emissions reductions targets and methods to achieve them — many groups said it relied too heavily on engineered forms of capturing carbon that aren’t proven to work at the necessary scale. 

“Some of these will scale up over time. They are not ready today,” said Ellie Cohen, CEO of the environmental nonprofit Climate Center. “A bigger question for us in California is … how much of these goals should be dependent on technologies that are brand new?” 

It’s true: This is an entirely new technology. Before opening the Tracy facility, Heirloom tested their process at a facility in Brisbane, California, in December 2022.

Heirloom's direct air capture facility is located in the outskirts of Tracy.Manola Secaira / CapRadio

Danny Broberg, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center's energy program, said direct air capture became a bigger national conversation in 2021, when the Biden administration included investments in the technology in that year’s federal infrastructure bill. 

More recently, in August, Broberg said the Biden administration showed further commitment to the technology by promising up to $1.2 billion toward two direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Heirloom was one of the companies awarded a part of this funding. 

“That being said, I do think that the vast majority of the country doesn’t understand what this technology is,” Broberg said. “I wouldn’t say that we’re peaking … and maybe the moment where the U.S. really pays attention to direct air capture is still in the future.” 

Reducing emissions, not excusing them

Aside from concerns about the technology’s novelty, environmental advocates have also worried about potential greenwashing. Shana Lazerow, legal director for the environmental nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment, pointed to a comment made by the CEO of Petroleum Occidental that direct air capture could help “preserve” their industry. 

Lazerow also said direct air capture uses a lot of energy, and at a high cost. Some experts estimate that currently, the average cost of capturing carbon through direct air capture technologies is between $600 and $1,000 per ton. 

Heirloom would not share specifics as to current costs and energy usage at the Tracy plant, but Scholten said in the long-term, they want to get energy use below 2,000 kilowatt hours per ton. As far as costs, he said their long-term target is about $100 per ton. 

In general, Lazerow said she wants to ensure these facilities consult with neighboring communities before moving forward.

“Communities need to have a deciding role in these kinds of facilities and be consulted along every step of the way,” Lazerow said. 

Cohen, with the Climate Center, said California should put more emphasis on proven, natural methods of capturing carbon. That includes efforts like restoring wetlands or greening urban spaces. 

But she’s not against technological solutions altogether. Given the rate of our current global emissions, Cohen said nature-based solutions likely won’t be enough to achieve our climate goals. 

“I believe that we will need some form of it, 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, in order to survive,” Cohen said. “However, it must have guardrails that protect the health and well-being of local communities … And it also needs to ensure that it's not in any way being used to produce more fossil fuels.” 

A dual challenge 

Heirloom plans to scale up their facility, which would allow it to capture more carbon. But beyond that, its founders say they also want to keep emitters accountable. They took one step towards that commitment in October, when the company issued a statement saying they would not subsidize their technology with fossil fuel revenues. 

“Removing CO2 from the atmosphere — it cannot be used as a reason to continue fossil fuel extraction. We need to reduce emissions and we need to remove CO2 from the air,” said Shashank Samala, Heirloom’s CEO. “It is a dual solution, dual challenge that we have.” 

In the center of the photo, from left to right: Shashank Samala and Noah McQueen, co-founders of Heirloom Technologies, prepare to cut the ceremonial ribbon for the Tracy facility's grand opening with Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy.Manola Secaira / CapRadio

Samala also said Heirloom supports Senate Bill 308, which would require heavy emitters to purchase carbon removal credits on top of other obligations to reduce emissions. The bill was introduced earlier this year but was stalled. 

Democratic Senator Josh Becker plans to introduce this bill again next year. He was also one of the many government officials attending Heirloom’s grand opening to show support. But Tracy officials and other locals attended too — like Jenny Wood, a grant writer and volunteer at the environmental nonprofit Tracy Earth Project. 

Heirloom reached out to her group a few months ago and has helped fund some of their events since then. She said she’s excited about their partnerships in the future.  

“Traditionally, Tracy has not been a place that has been super environmentally up to date,” Wood said.  

Right now, she said most locals aren’t aware the Heirloom facility exists.

“Hopefully today with the ribbon cutting, it will really become more prevalent and people will really know more about it,” she said.