This kind of direct air capture that relies on consuming CO2 from diffuse, open-air atmosphere conditions will never be effective enough to be worth it. The concentration is simply too low, and the atmosphere too large. The costs quoted in the article are 5-10x other carbon mitigation technologies (presumably not even accounting for carbon intensities in the mining and logistics necessary to produce such facilities).

However targeted, point-source applications that are effectively scrubbers for carbon-intense processes make a lot of sense because of the opportunities for high-concentration collection and recirculation for multiple passes across the substrate.

I'm wondering if Heirloom is putting any effort into the latter approach. The article only reports on open-air facilities.