Frequently Asked Questions

Science

Reticular chemistry is a branch of chemistry at the intersection of inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and materials science, revolutionizing how functional materials are developed. The term reticular is derived from the Latin word reticulum meaning net-like. At its core, reticular chemistry is about stitching together molecular building blocks to form porous or “net-like” structures such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) or Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs).

Prof. Omar Yaghi is the founder of reticular chemistry. His work on the development of metal-organic frameworks earned him the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Reticular materials are special because they can be designed and built with an exceptional level of precision. Scientists assemble these structures from well-defined molecular building blocks that are linked together into extended frameworks. This makes it possible to control key properties such as pore size, surface area, stability, and chemical functionality with remarkable accuracy. In other words, reticular materials allow researchers to design matter at the molecular level in order to achieve a specific function.

What makes this so powerful is that the resulting materials can be tailored to solve real-world challenges. Because their structures are highly porous with an internal surface area of up to a football field per gram and highly tunable, reticular materials can be engineered to selectively capture gases, store energy, harvest water from air, catalyze chemical reactions, or deliver molecules in medical applications. This combination of modular design, atomic-level precision, and broad functional versatility is what makes reticular materials so distinctive. They do not simply offer a new class of materials, but a new way of thinking about how materials can be designed to solve real-world challenges.

Reticular materials are being developed and commercialized for a wide range of applications, from environmental solutions to advanced applications in medicine and electronics. In particular, the use of AI enables scientists to develop reticular materials at a much faster pace, opening the door to many new applications. Two promising examples of where the use of reticular materials such as MOFs and COFs can enable transformative technologies are carbon capture and atmospheric water harvesting.

In carbon capture, reticular materials can be designed to selectively bind carbon dioxide molecules from gas streams or ambient air. Because their pores and chemical functionalities can be tuned with atomic precision, reticular materials can be optimized for low-concentration CO₂ capture, which is one of the biggest challenges holding back a wider adoption of carbon capture. Find out more here: Carbon Capture Solutions – Solid-State Carbon Capture Technology | Atoco

Reticular materials are also highly promising for atmospheric water harvesting, where incumbent technologies struggle to generate water from air in arid regions with low humidity. Reticular materials offer a fundamentally new approach in this space. They can be designed with atomic precision to adsorb water molecules, even in the driest places on earth. Learn more here: Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Pure Water from Air Using Reticular Chemistry | Atoco

What makes reticular materials so powerful in carbon capture, atmospheric water harvesting, and many other applications such as energy storage or drug delivery is the same underlying principle: they can be designed at the molecular level to interact selectively with specific target molecules.

The most notable group of reticular materials are Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), which consist of metal ions or clusters connected by anionic organic linkers. Prof. Omar Yaghi is considered the inventor of MOF chemistry which earned him the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2025,He made the first major MOF discovery in 1995 by showing that metal-organic structures could be crystallized using carboxylate-based linkers. This breakthrough opened the door to stable, crystalline, and porous materials. In 1998, he further advanced the field by introducing the concept of secondary building units (SBUs), rigid metal-carboxylate clusters that made it possible to design frameworks with permanent porosity more precisely and with greater stability. A further milestone followed in 1999 with the creation by Prof. Yaghi of MOF-5, the first metal-organic framework to show ultra-high porosity (2,900 m2/g).

In general, reticular materials such as MOFs are defined by the following key features:

• Order and porosity: MOFs are highly ordered and porous with large internal surface areas of up to an entire football field per gram.

• Customizable frameworks: MOFs can be designed with atomic precision, enabling extremely high control over the physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of the materials

• Robustness and stability: MOFs can be designed to withstand extreme temperatures as well as harsh chemical environments for extended periods of time, making them suitable for demanding industrial processes.

A Covalent Organic Framework (COF) consists of organic molecules linked via covalent bonds. It is one of the most notable reticular materials. Building on his previous discovery of MOFs in the 1990s, Prof. Yaghi discovered the first 2D COF in 2005. Two years later, he reported on the first 3D COFs.

In general, reticular materials such as COFs are defined by the following key features:

• Order and porosity: MOFs are highly ordered and porous with large internal surface areas of up to an entire football field per gram.

• Customizable frameworks: MOFs can be designed with atomic precision, enabling extremely high control over the physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of the materials

Atmospheric Water Harvesting

An atmospheric water generator is a device or system that generates water from the humidity in the air. Typically, atmospheric water generators either rely on cooling-condensation or desiccants. Both approaches face severe limitations in arid regions of low relative humidity (RH). More recently, MOF atmospheric water harvesting gained more traction as it generates clean water from air at scale efficiently, even in dry environments of very low humidity.

There are different methods to generate water from air. Today, cooling-condensation, where the air gets cooled to its dew point, is the most widely adopted approach. This is a very energy-intensive process, especially in arid regions of low humidity. Another process uses desiccants; desiccants can work well in lower humidity environments, but they tie water molecules to the material with strong bonds so that it requires a significant amount of energy to desorb; this increases the energy consumption per liter generated. Atmospheric water generators based on nano-engineered reticular materials instead store water molecules in the pores of its reticular material. This process recently gained increased traction as it can generate water from air, even in arid regions.

The commercially available atmospheric water generator devices or systems typically have a generation capacity ranging from just a few liters per day to several hundred liters per day. The potential, however, is much bigger: The atmosphere holds more water than all the world’s rivers and lakes combined and is a self-replenishing system. Potentially, billions and billions of liters of water could be extracted on a daily basis. To reach this scale some technological challenges need to be tackled, one of which being the fact that legacy solutions such as cooling condensation don’t work energy efficiently in low humidity environments. At a more fundamental level, cooling-condensation technologies cannot easily scale beyond a certain generation capacity, limiting their use cases and applications. Nano-engineered reticular materials solve this challenge and enable a scalable impact of water from air.

In general, reticular materials such as MOFs are defined by the following key features:

• Order and porosity: MOFs are highly ordered and porous with large internal surface areas of up to an entire football field per gram.

• Customizable frameworks: MOFs can be designed with atomic precision, enabling extremely high control over the physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of the materials

Traditional cooling condensation technologies harvest water molecules together with traces of dirt and other pollutants. This necessitates further purification and filtration to increase the quality to a level where it’s safe to drink. This purification process requires energy and regular maintenance which drives up the cost of water for cooling condensation-based technologies. Due to the extremely high degree of selectivity of reticular materials, the reticular materials work as a purification filter at the atomic level. Thus, MOF atmospheric water harvesting can generate extremely clean water, at the level of distilled water quality, free from dirt, bacteria and any other contaminants. In fact, it’s so clean that you need to mineralize it to make it potable.

No. An atmospheric water generator doesn’t remove water from the environment, it borrows it temporarily from a cycle that’s constantly replenished. The atmosphere holds as much water at any moment as all the world’s rivers and lakes combined, and that water is a flow rather than a fixed, depletable reserve. It’s continuously refilled by evaporation from oceans, lakes, soil, and plants. Water extracted through atmospheric water generation and used for drinking, irrigation, or industry eventually evaporates again and re-enters that same flow, no differently than water condensing naturally as dew or rain.

Typical cooling-condensation-based atmospheric water generators don’t work energy efficiently at humidity levels below 30-40%, whereas Atmospheric water generators based on nano-engineered reticular materials work efficiently even in extremely low humidities. Off-grid atmospheric water harvesting systems are even capable of generating clean water from desert air without any use of electricity. They are powered entirely by ambient energy, such as geothermal or low-grade waste heat from industrial processes.

The electricity consumption of an atmospheric water generator depends on the technology that is used. In places with high humidity levels, cooling-condensation approaches work reasonably well. In arid regions where the relative humidity is low, only atmospheric water generators based on nano-engineered reticular materials work energy efficiently, enabling a relatively low cost of clean water.

Off-grid atmospheric water generation can mean different things. In the context of cooling condensation technologies, it typically means that the system is electrically powered by an isolated electricity grid (island grid) based on renewable sources of electricity, typically solar or wind energy. In the context of MOF atmospheric water harvesting, off-grid water generation can mean something very different, namely that the off-grid water generation system is 100% powered by ambient energy such as geothermal or low-grade waste heat from industrial processes. Because such a system would not require any electricity to generate water from air, the cost of water delivered would be very cost-competitive, especially considering its high level of purity. The only company to confirm publicly 100% off-grid water generation technology is Atoco.

MOF water harvesting is an innovative atmospheric water harvesting method leveraging reticular materials such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). These materials can be nano-engineered with atomic precision to harvest water from air at scale efficiently, even in dry climates of low humidity. What makes these materials special is their extremely high internal surface area of up to an entire football field per gram. This porosity can be leveraged for atmospheric water generation as the pores can be nano-engineered to adsorb water molecules from air.

Atmospheric Water Harvesting Applications

Cooling condensation-based atmospheric water generators face difficulties generating water from air efficiently in low-humidity environments. This drives up the cost of water generated, to a point where it is not economical for wider adoption. While modular, they are also challenging to scale to utility levels, somewhat ruling out large scale use-cases. Together, these factors limit the applications that can be targeted with this technology. Atoco’s atmospheric water harvesting technology based on nano-engineered reticular materials, on the other hand, can work anywhere in the world, even in the most remote and dry locations. It can scale to utility levels of generation capacity and can potentially generate water from air without any electricity consumption. This opens the door for a very broad range of applications including clean water from air for data centers, green hydrogen plants, desert farming, remote communities, and many more.

Find out more about Atoco’s MOF atmospheric water harvesting technology and its main applications: Atmospheric Water Harvesting Applications – Clean Water for Homes, Industry & Remote Areas | Atoco

Data centers require large amounts of water for cooling and operations. Especially in arid regions such as the Southwestern U.S. this creates a major challenge between dwindling local freshwater sources and rising demand for AI computing power. Atoco’s atmospheric water generators, based on nano-engineered reticular materials, can harness waste heat from data centers to both consume or absorb excess thermal load—reducing cooling demand on existing cooling infrastructures—and power water generation from air, even in low-humidity regions such as California and Texas.

Find out more in this white paper: Sustainable AI in a Water-Scarce World

Yes, the water from air produced by Atoco’s atmospheric water generators is extremely pure and can therefore be used for electrolysis with minimum or no additional filtration or purification. Another advantage is the fact that the atmospheric water generation process can be powered by the low-grade waste heat from hydrogen electrolyzer, creating a self-sustaining and water resilience hydrogen production process.

Yes, Atoco’s atmospheric water generators can generate clean water from air at scale, even in the most remote and driest places on earth. MOF water harvesting can therefore be a gamechanger for rural and remote communities that don’t have direct access to freshwater sources.

Read more in this white paper: Water Resilience for Islands White Paper | Atoco

Yes, atmospheric water harvesting based on nano-engineered reticular materials is an ideal supplementary water source for agricultural activities in arid regions. Atoco’s off-grid water generation technology can leverage ultra-low-grade waste heat from industrial processes or ambient sources, including geothermal energy, to generate water from air, even from desert air of low humidity.

Carbon Capture

Carbon capture is the process of preventing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from entering the atmosphere or removing it after it has already been released. Most commonly, carbon capture refers to carbon capture technology that separates CO₂ from industrial emissions or directly from the air, so that it can be permanently stored or used in other applications. In sectors with hard-to-abate emissions, industrial carbon capture plays an important role in reducing overall greenhouse gas output. As carbon capture innovation advances, new carbon capture technology is making carbon capture more efficient, scalable, and better suited to low-concentration CO₂ streams. The overarching goal of carbon capture is to reduce the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and help mitigate climate change.

CCUS stands for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage. It refers to a set of carbon capture technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) before it enters the atmosphere or removing it after it has already been released, and then either use it in other applications or store it permanently underground. The main goal of CCUS is to reduce emissions from industries and processes where CO₂ is difficult to eliminate entirely, such as cement, steel, chemicals, and power generation.

The term brings together three steps. First, carbon capture separates CO₂ from industrial emissions or other sources. Second, utilization refers to using the captured CO₂ in products or processes, for example in fuels, chemicals, or building materials. Third, storage means for instance injecting the CO₂ into deep geological formations where it can be kept out of the atmosphere for the long term. In this way, CCUS is an important tool for lowering emissions while supporting the transition to a lower-carbon economy.

As carbon capture technology continues to advance, CCUS is becoming an increasingly important tool for lowering industrial emissions and enables a wider adoption of industrial carbon capture.

Today, there are two fundamental approaches to carbon capture. The first – post-combustion carbon capture – focuses on capturing CO₂ directly at the emission source, with the goal of minimizing the amount released into the atmosphere. This differs from Direct Air Capture (DAC), which removes CO₂ from ambient air.

Because post-combustion capture targets concentrated CO₂ streams, such as those from power plants, cement plants, or other industrial facilities, the gas can be separated more easily and typically at lower cost per ton captured. DAC technologies, by contrast, works with much more dilute CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere, which makes the capture process more energy-intensive and technically demanding. At the same time, DAC offers a unique advantage: it can remove legacy CO₂ that has already been emitted and can be deployed independently of a specific industrial source.

In short, post-combustion capture is primarily a tool for preventing new emissions from entering the atmosphere, while DAC technologies are designed to remove existing CO₂ from the air. Both approaches have an important role to play in addressing climate change, but they serve different purposes within a broader carbon management strategy.

There are three main types of point-source carbon capture technologies: pre-combustion capture, post-combustion capture (PCC), and oxyfuel combustion capture (OFCC), with PCC being by far the most widely used (estimates vary, but PCC is considered to account for over 70% of the carbon capture market). These solutions are used to reduce emissions in a targeted and effective manner from industrial processes, power generation and other sources. In spite of the fact that most carbon capture technologies face challenges with high costs, they have the potential to significantly reduce emissions.

The process of point source carbon capture typically involves three stages. First, CO₂ in the flue gas is captured using a carbon capture material, which selectively binds to CO₂. Then, the sorbent material is regenerated to release the captured CO₂. And finally, the released CO₂ is purified and compressed for storage or utilization.

Yes, low-concentration CO₂ capture can work, but it is more technically demanding than capturing CO₂ from concentrated industrial exhaust streams. The lower the CO₂ concentration, the harder it is to separate efficiently, which is why advanced carbon capture materials and system designs are so important. DAC technologies based on covalent organic frameworks (COFs) represent a promising carbon capture innovation, because these advanced materials can be nano-engineered to enable regeneration at significantly lower temperatures than incumbent DAC technologies. In addition, reticular materials designed with atomic precision, can capture CO2 from air without pre-drying the airstream which eliminates another major cost-driver incumbent DAC technologies struggle with. This could substantially reduce direct air capture energy consumption and therefore enable a wider adoption. One emerging use case is data centers DAC where existing airflow and low-grade waste heat could be leveraged for COF carbon capture.

Find out more here: Built-In Direct Air Capture: The Data Center Opportunity White Paper | Atoco

Low-concentration CO₂ capture is also becoming increasingly relevant beyond direct air capture. In post-combustion capture (PCC) applications such as power generation with natural gas or aluminum the flue gas CO₂ concentrations are so low that post-combustion carbon capture energy consumption is very high with incumbent technologies. COF carbon capture based on nano-engineered reticular materials could play a major role in solving this challenge and enable applications such as carbon capture power generation and carbon capture aluminum at scale. You can read more about the unique features of COFs and how these can be leveraged for industrial carbon capture: Transforming Industrial Carbon Capture White Paper | Atoco

Solid-state carbon capture refers to capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) using a solid material rather than a liquid solvent. In this approach, CO₂ molecules bind to the surface or internal pores of a solid sorbent, where they can be held and later released in a controlled way. The goal of solid-state CO₂ capture is the same as in other carbon capture technologies: to prevent CO₂ from entering the atmosphere or to remove it from the air.

Solid-state CCUS builds on this approach by integrating solid-state CO₂ capture into the broader framework of carbon capture, utilization, and storage. In other words, solid-state CCUS combines carbon capture with pathways to either use the captured carbon dioxide in other applications or store it permanently. This makes solid-state CCUS highly relevant for both industrial decarbonization and long-term carbon management.

Solid-state carbon capture can offer several advantages, depending on the material being used. One of the most promising new carbon capture materials is Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs). These highly porous carbon capture materials can be engineered with atomic precision to capture carbon dioxide molecules from both industrial processes and ambient air. Their unique features allow for low-concentration CO₂ capture at relatively low cost. Find out more about COF carbon capture here: Carbon Capture Solutions – Solid-State Carbon Capture Technology | Atoco

The biggest challenge holding back wider adoption of carbon capture is cost. In Post-Combustion Capture (PCC), roughly 45 to 65% of all costs across the CCUS value chain come from the capture stage. In the Direct Air Capture (DAC) space, that percentage goes up to 85% due to the extremely low CO2 concentrations. Find out more: Affordable CCUS Solutions White Paper | Atoco

Until the cost of low-concentration CO₂ capture comes down significantly, broader adoption of carbon capture technologies will remain limited. To close this gap, carbon capture innovation must focus on developing carbon capture materials that can capture carbon from ambient air and diluted industrial streams with high efficiency and therefore at lower cost. One promising candidate to achieve that is reticular materials. Find out more about their unique features and how these could enable cost-efficient carbon capture technologies: Carbon Capture Solutions – Solid-State Carbon Capture Technology | Atoco

Carbon Capture Applications

Data Centers DAC refers to the integration of Direct Air Capture (DAC) into data center infrastructure in order to reduce emissions and, potentially, turn data centers into active carbon removal sites. Data centers face a structural emissions challenge: they consume large amounts of electricity and are under growing pressure to demonstrate credible, verifiable emissions reductions rather than relying solely on offsets. DAC technologies are particularly relevant in this context because they remove CO₂ directly from ambient air, helping data centers address emissions in a more measurable and durable way.

What makes this concept especially compelling is that data centers already provide two of the key ingredients DAC technologies need most. Air-cooled facilities continuously move massive volumes of air, which is exactly what low-concentration CO₂ capture requires for energy-efficient performance. In a standalone DAC system, generating that airflow is a major energy cost, but in a data center, it already exists as part of normal operations.

At the same time, data centers produce continuous ultra-low-grade waste heat. This is where solid sorbent direct air capture becomes particularly relevant. By using advanced reticular solid carbon capture materials that are nano-engineered for low-concentration CO₂ capture can leverage the low-grade waste heat that data centers produce in abundance for regeneration of the solid sorbent direct air capture system.

As a result, an integrated data center DAC system can do more than reduce emissions: it can unlock a new value stream by turning captured CO₂ into a saleable product for industrial use or by routing it to permanent storage and generating high-integrity carbon removal credits.

Find out more in our white paper: Built-In Direct Air Capture: The Data Center Opportunity White paper | Atoco

Industrial carbon capture is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from industrial emission sources before it is released into the atmosphere. These sources can include power plants, cement plants, steel mills, refineries, and chemical facilities. Instead of allowing CO₂ to escape through flue gas or other exhaust streams, industrial carbon capture technologies separate it so that it can either be stored permanently underground or used in industrial applications.

Industrial carbon capture is especially important for sectors where emissions are difficult to eliminate through electrification alone. The challenge, however, is that post combustion carbon capture costs can be high, particularly when dealing with dilute industrial streams, which is why improving the efficiency and affordability of carbon capture materials remains such an important focus. Advances in material science will play a key role in making applications such as carbon capture cement, carbon capture steel, carbon capture power generation, and carbon capture aluminum more scalable and commercially viable.

Find out more in our white paper on how this challenge can be tackled with COF carbon capture: Transforming Industrial Carbon Capture White Paper | Atoco

Direct Air Capture cost is high largely due to the fact that the energy consumption per captured CO₂ is unsustainably high, holding back a wider adoption of DAC technologies. The real question is, therefore, why is the electricity consumption so high? In a DAC environment, energy consumption is high due to two main factors: (1) the high energy consumption reflects the ultra-low concentration of CO₂ in ambient 0.04% and (2) the need to pre-dry air prior to CO₂ capture.

Regarding CO₂ concentrations, unlike industrial carbon capture, where CO₂ is much more concentrated, Direct Air Capture must separate CO₂ from air that contains only a very small amount of it. That makes the process more energy-intensive since large volumes of air need to be moved through the system many times, and the carbon capture material must then be regenerated (meaning desorbing the captured CO₂ molecules from the material) so it can be used for the next cycle. Most existing carbon capture materials need high temperatures above 100 °C for this regeneration process, which results in such high direct air capture energy consumption that it is not economically feasible at a larger scale. New reticular carbon capture materials such as have the potential to overcome this challenge. These highly porous reticular materials can have an internal surface area of up to an entire football field per gram. The pores of the material can be engineered with atomic precision to store carbon dioxide molecules. As the molecules are stored in the pores with weak bonds, only a small amount of heat is needed for regeneration, which drastically reduces direct air capture cost.

Regarding the need to pre-dry air prior to carbon capture, most existing solid sorbents are severely challenged in the presence of water molecules, meaning the material deteriorates faster and its selectivity for H₂O is reduced. To avoid these challenges, the ambient air is pre-dried prior to carbon capture. Unfortunately, this requires a substantial amount of energy, which ultimately contributes to the unsustainably high Direct Air Capture costs. It is important to note here, that in a DAC environment the concentration of H₂O (typically 30-80% RH) is much higher than that of CO₂ (0.04%). Atoco’s DAC materials thrive in the presence of water and therefore avoid the need to pre-dry altogether.

Learn more about the unique advantages of DAC technologies based on nano-engineered reticular materials: Direct Air Capture White Paper | Atoco

Post-combustion carbon capture cost depends heavily on the CO₂ concentration in the flue gas, and this is worth separating into two very different cases. For medium to high CO₂ concentrations, such as coal power (roughly 12 to 15% CO₂) or cement production (roughly 14 to 33% CO₂), post-combustion capture cost is not particularly high relative to other decarbonization levers. Costs here have come down significantly with decades of process maturity, commonly landing in the $40 to $90 per ton range.

The picture changes sharply at lower CO₂ concentrations. In sectors with lower CO₂ concentrations such as aluminum production (1–2% CO₂) and natural gas power generation (3–4% CO₂) post-combustion carbon captures costs can reach $180–$300 per ton as both the CO₂ separation and the regeneration of the carbon capture material is very energy-intensive. In order to enable a wider adoption of low-concentration CO₂ capture innovative approaches are required — ones that reduce energy consumption, enhance carbon capture material efficiency, and enable seamless integration into existing infrastructure. Transformative advances in solid-state carbon capture technology, particularly through the use of nano-engineered reticular materials, offer a promising path forward by significantly lowering the energy input required for CO₂ capture and regeneration. By addressing these critical cost barriers, such advancements can make decarbonization feasible for hard-to-abate industries and drive large-scale industrial adoption of PCC.

Learn more in our white paper: Transforming Industrial Carbon Capture White Paper | Atoco

Enabled by more innovative reticular carbon capture materials applications of carbon capture are expanding far beyond traditional heavy industry. While industrial carbon capture remains essential in sectors such as cement, steel, and chemicals, a growing wave of carbon capture innovation is opening up new use cases. One important example is onboard carbon capture, where vessels capture CO₂ directly during operation to reduce emissions at the point of use. Another promising area is on-site power generation for data centers, where new carbon capture technology can address emissions from increasingly energy-intensive digital infrastructure.

At the same time, carbon capture innovation is beginning to reshape how carbon management is considered in urban environments and buildings. As new carbon capture technology becomes more modular, energy-efficient, and better suited to low-concentration CO₂ streams, carbon capture could be integrated into building systems, district energy infrastructure, and other urban environments where emissions are more diffuse but still significant. These emerging applications show that the future of carbon capture is not limited to large industrial sites. Instead, industrial carbon capture is being complemented by a broader generation of carbon capture innovation that brings new carbon capture technology into transport, digital infrastructure, and the built environment.

Read more on how nano-engineered reticular materials can enable carbon capture in these emerging applications: Carbon Capture Solutions – Solid-State Carbon Capture Technology | Atoco

Atoco’s approach makes carbon capture more cost-efficient and scalable by rethinking the underlying carbon capture technology at the material level. Atoco uses advanced solid-state reticular materials such as Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) designed to tackle the main cost drivers of incumbent carbon capture technologies.

First, leveraging innovative carbon capture materials, Atoco’s carbon capture technology reduces both direct air capture cost and post combustion carbon capture cost by capturing CO₂ without the need for pre-drying the airstream which is a significant differentiator to incumbent carbon capture materials which depend on the energy-intensive and therefore costly process of pre-drying the airstream. Second, Atoco’s carbon capture materials are designed with atomic precision to regenerate at ultra-low temperatures which enables the use of ultra-low-great waste heat while incumbent carbon capture technologies need temperatures of 100 °C and more which increases cost substantially. These two main advantages of Atoco’s carbon capture technology reduce direct air capture energy consumption and post combustion carbon capture energy consumption significantly and therefore enable a wider adoption.

Find out more here: Carbon Capture Solutions – Solid-State Carbon Capture Technology | Atoco

Atoco’s role in the carbon capture value chain is that of a technology provider. We nano-engineer novel reticular materials that sit at the core of next-generation carbon capture technology, helping enable more efficient industrial carbon capture, post combustion carbon capture, and DAC technologies at scale. Leveraging nano-engineered reticular carbon capture materials, Atoco aims to help reduce both direct air capture cost and post combustion carbon capture cost to enable a wider adoption.

In this way, Atoco supports the broader carbon capture ecosystem from within the technology stack. By enabling higher-performance solid sorbent PCC and solid sorbent direct air capture systems, we aim to provide the foundational carbon capture technology that allows our partners to build more efficient, lower-cost, and more scalable capture systems. This positions Atoco as a strategic technology partner for carbon capture OEMs, carbon capture contractor suppliers, and carbon capture EPCs that are building, integrating, and deploying carbon capture technology at commercial scale across applications such as carbon capture cement, carbon capture steel, carbon capture power generation, carbon capture aluminum, and DAC data center infrastructure.

Read more on our transformative carbon capture technology here: Carbon Capture Solutions – Solid-State Carbon Capture Technology | Atoco

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Frequently Asked Questions

Science

What is reticular chemistry?

What is so special about reticular materials?

What can reticular materials be used for?

What is a Metal-Organic Framework (MOF)?

What is a Covalent Organic Framework (COF)?

Atmospheric Water Harvesting

What is an atmospheric water generator?

How does atmospheric water generation work?

What can reticular materials be used for?

How much water can an atmospheric water generator produce?

Is water from air safe to drink?

Does atmospheric water harvesting dry out regions that already suffer from low humidity?

Does an atmospheric water generator work in dry climates?

How much electricity does an atmospheric water generator use?

What is meant by off-grid atmospheric water generation?

What is MOF water harvesting?

Atmospheric Water Harvesting Applications

What are the main applications for atmospheric water generators?

How can data centers become water-independent? What role can atmospheric water generators play?

Can water from air be used for Hydrogen Production?

Can atmospheric water harvesting provide an alternative water supply for rural/remote communities?

Are there alternative water sources for agriculture in arid regions? Can atmospheric water harvesting make a difference for desert farming?

Carbon Capture

What is carbon capture?

What is CCUS?

What is the difference between Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Post-Combustion Capture (PCC)?

What is point source carbon capture?

Can carbon capture work with low CO₂ concentrations?

What is solid-state carbon capture?

What is holding back carbon capture?

Carbon Capture Applications

What is Data Centers DAC?

What is industrial carbon capture?

Why is Direct Air Capture cost so high?

Why is post-combustion carbon capture cost so high?

What are the emerging applications of carbon capture?

What is solid-state carbon capture?

How does Atoco’s technology make carbon capture cost-efficient and scalable?

Who are Atoco’s PCC and DAC carbon capture technologies for?