Aramco works to accelerate DAC development

Direct air capture is still in its infancy, but organisations are seeking to leverage global collaborations and AI to discover new materials, with an aim of scaling up the technology and cutting costs

Direct air capture (DAC) of CO₂ is a nascent technology, but one Saudi Aramco has been researching it in collaboration with academic institutions, research organisations and industry partners around the world. One research project with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has led to the discovery of a new material to capture CO₂ from the air, which in turn has instigated development of a process to scale up DAC technology. The discovered material, known as Aramco-KAUST 7, is a nickel-based metal-organic framework with a network-like structure that acts like a sponge, selectively binding to CO₂ to trap it. The trapped CO₂ can then be released from the mate