Project TENET: Research on an innovative direct air capture technology that delivers a cheaper and more energy-efficient approach to removing and storing CO2.

Project TENET (Teesside Negative Emissions Technology Research) will build and test the first large scale Direct Air Capture (DAC) prototype located in a UK Net Zero Cluster (the Teesside cluster). The project will be delivered by Airhive, a British DAC startup, and its partner the Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC) at Teesside University. Airhive's innovative DAC technology has the potential to deliver cost and energy breakthroughs for DAC, which needs to leverage clean energy and CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure in emerging Net Zero Clusters such as Teesside to support achieving net zero.

Airhive will build and test the next phase of its technology prototype in the NZIIC laboratories, leveraging the Centre's growing CCS and DAC skills base, low carbon energy supply and CO2 storage test bed. Through this work Project TENET will support further research and development in a crucial new technology area--across the full chain from construction to capture to storage--in the heart of the Teesside cluster.

Research will also involve synthesising and testing new capture materials that support optimal system performance.

Airhive and NZIIC will also explore the potential of integrating a thermochemical energy storage process into the system, which if proven would allow a breakthrough in enabling DAC technology to work with intermittent low carbon energy supplies. And Airhive and NZIIC will assess the potential for deploying a DAC pilot facility at a Teesside site where it can leverage the abundant waste heat from existing industrial production.

Project TENET will improve scientific and industrial knowledge and skills for DAC in Teesside, strengthen partnerships for future CCS and DAC deployment in the cluster, and support local and national societal awareness and engagement with DAC as a critical area of future net zero innovation.