Direct air capture has made big strides over the past decade. Once considered prohibitively expensive, the technology is finally inching toward affordability—at least for deep-pocketed players like Microsoft, which has pledged to wipe out its carbon footprint by 2030. But for many companies, the current cost of carbon removal is still out of reach.
That’s where RepAir Carbon comes in. This climate tech startup is rethinking how carbon is captured, borrowing ideas from the way batteries work. By using electricity instead of heat, the company believes it can bring the cost of carbon removal machines down to just $70–$80 per metric ton. That’s a dramatic drop from the $600 price tag many systems carry today.
Fresh off a $15 million Series A extension, RepAir is now pushing forward with its breakthrough approach. The latest round was led by Exantia Capital and Taranis Carbon Ventures, with support from Ormat Technologies, Repsol, and a $3 million grant from the Israeli Innovation Authority.
The secret lies in how RepAir’s system is built. Most carbon capture setups use chemical solvents that require energy-intensive heating to regenerate. RepAir skips the heat and instead uses a low-voltage electrochemical process to do the job.
Here’s how it works. The machine channels air or flue gas through a reaction chamber that contains two electrodes separated by a membrane. A nickel-based electrode draws in hydroxide, which then binds with CO₂ from the air, forming carbonate and bicarbonate ions. These ions, now negatively charged, flow through the separator toward the positively charged electrode on the other side. There, the ions are converted back into carbon dioxide and hydroxide. The captured CO₂ is siphoned off for storage, while the hydroxide is reused—making the system fully reversible.
According to co-founder and CEO Amir Shiner, this reversibility is a major advantage. Unlike traditional systems that need to pause for regeneration, RepAir’s tech runs continuously. That efficiency means fewer modules are needed to hit the same carbon capture targets.
“We regenerate while working,” Shiner explained, highlighting the system’s ability to keep going without downtime.
Each unit contains multiple stacked layers of anode-separator modules. By adjusting the amount of electricity flowing through each, RepAir can fine-tune performance in real time, keeping the system operating at its most effective.
This flexible approach means RepAir’s machines aren’t limited to capturing atmospheric carbon—they can also scrub emissions directly from industrial exhaust, like those produced by power plants. In fact, the company is now exploring integrations with gas turbines to help reduce the carbon footprint of energy-hungry data centers.
While the technology is still in its early stages, interest is already growing. Developers are exploring pilot deployments, and momentum is building around its potential to scale.
If RepAir delivers on its promise, it could offer an affordable and energy-efficient path to large-scale carbon removal. In the race against climate change, that kind of innovation can’t come soon enough.
