Building That 'Captures and Uses CO2 from the Air'

Carbon Xtract Inc. (hereinafter 'Carbon Xtract') announces that, in collaboration with Shimizu Corporation (hereinafter 'Shimizu') and Sojitz Corporation (hereinafter 'Sojitz'), it has installed its small-scale distributed Direct Air Capture (DAC) unit 'm-DAC®' at 'Wen Gu Chuang Xin no Mori NOVARE' (Koto-ku, Tokyo), Shimizu's urban innovation hub. This installation is part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's 'Early Social Implementation Support Project for Creating GX-Related Industries'.

The demonstration began in autumn 2025 and will continue until the end of fiscal year 2028 at the latest. To date, the project has been verifying the technical effectiveness of an urban carbon cycle model that separates and captures CO2 from indoor air and utilizes it on-site.

Key points of this project:

- Captures CO2 from the 'air' of new urban spaces - As one use case, the captured CO2 is utilized on-site for plant cultivation - Demonstrates a 'closed carbon cycle model' that is completed within a specific space, such as a building

Conventionally, capturing CO2 from the atmosphere typically required large-scale equipment. However, the m-DAC® developed by Carbon Xtract is characterized by its scalable design that does not presuppose large-scale operation and can be tailored to customer needs.

This allows for distributed installation in diverse urban environments such as buildings, stations, and commercial facilities.

In this demonstration, air from a meeting room within NOVARE is processed by the m-DAC® to selectively separate and capture CO2. This CO2 is then supplied to a plant cultivation unit installed on-site, simulating one potential use case. The high concentration of CO2 is expected to promote photosynthesis and improve plant growth rates, paving the way for a new urban agriculture model that circulates CO2 as a valuable resource.

Going forward, Carbon Xtract will build on the knowledge gained from this demonstration to steadily advance efforts toward establishing a CO2 circulation model in urban environments.

In the future, if m-DAC® units can be installed throughout urban spaces such as office buildings and commercial facilities, it would enable the construction of a distributed infrastructure where every part of the city functions as a CO2 capture and supply hub. The captured CO2 could also be used as a raw material for carbonated water and carbonated showers, fixed into cement and concrete, or converted into clean methane gas as a new energy source.

Carbon Xtract aims to develop technology and commercialize the circular use of carbon, creating value for both urban life and industrial activities.