Carbon Removal Technology · Field Pilot Coming Soon

Refining
the Sky.

The atmosphere has been absorbing the cost of progress for 200 years. We're building carbon removal technology to change that. Permanently.

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How it Works

Four stages. Two closed loops. Pure CO₂ permanently buried.

Stage 01
Catch

Air enters the platform's liquid capture system. CO₂ bonds with our capture solution, drawing it out of the atmosphere at ambient temperature and pressure. No heat required.

›
Stage 02
Free

A bio-electrochemical process generates the energy needed to release pure, concentrated CO₂ from the loaded capture solution.

›
Stage 03
Reset

The liquid capture solution is regenerated and recirculated. The cycle restarts, continuously.

›
Stage 04
Sequester

A pure, concentrated stream of CO₂ exits the platform ready for permanent underground storage. Measurable. Verifiable. Gone for good.

›

The Leverage Effect

One molecule in. Eight CO₂ molecules removed.

GAIA’s process doesn’t burn ethanol to generate heat. One molecule of ethanol drives the capture and concentration of up to 8 molecules of CO₂. The mechanism is proprietary. The ratio speaks for itself.

1

Ethanol molecule in
No combustion

GAIA
Bio-Catalytic Process
→

8 CO₂ molecules removed
Captured & concentrated

8×
Capture leverage
Zero
Combustion
Ethanol drives, not burns
Pure
CO₂
Concentrated stream out

The Platform

Modular. Licensable.
Structured for Deployment.

The platform is designed to sidestep the existing power and sequestration bottlenecks of our industry. Partners bring the site readiness, we bring the capture technology.

Built for the Landscape of Today

Our platform utilizes a next-generation bio-electrochemical loop that capitalizes on biogenic energy, first principle chemistry and succinct closed loop regeneration. These innovations allow us to deploy today, not dependent on access to a large clean grid or to the pace of pipeline approvals.

Built to Scale for Tomorrow

Air is everywhere, but for certified carbon removals we need permanent removals, meaning only the sequestration site binds deployment and credit retirement. Our platform has the mobility to be deployed opportunistically at industrial and storage sites, making our technology addressable across the full global storage universe. Growing to Gigatons.

Why We Exist

Response + Ability

If the ability to respond exists, the obligation to act follows.

The world needs less CO₂ in the atmosphere. We built the technology. Now let’s use it.

The Science Based Targets initiative recently introduced a new accountability category: ongoing emissions responsibility — the formal recognition that companies with the ability to remove carbon have an obligation to act on it. Not blame. Not compliance. Ability, meeting action.

We invented the technology before the category existed. We know this is where the world is headed.

Founded By

The team behind the technology.

Genny Shaw
Genny Shaw
Co-Founder & CEO

Industry strategist and entrepreneur driving GAIA's commercial development, partnerships, and go-to-market. Focused on building the bridge between carbon removal technology and the industries that need it most.

Dr. Tammy Cai
Dr. Qinhong (Tammy) Cai
Founder & CTO

Research scientist and engineer behind GAIA's core IP. Deep expertise in biology, chemistry, environmental engineering and carbon capture pathways. The inventor of the bio-electrochemical system at GAIA's core.

"We didn't start with a market. We started with a question: if we can build something that removes carbon from the atmosphere permanently, don't we have to? That question is still the reason we come to work."
Genny Shaw & Dr. Tammy Cai — Co-Founders, GAIA Refinery

The Tech Team

Small team. Planetary ambition.

GAIA Refinery tech team

Our technology team. Researchers, engineers, and builders working on the science that makes GAIA’s process possible.

Who We Work With

One Platform.
Multiple Market Lanes.

GAIA's platform is designed to work with project partners who bring the Site, the Storage, &/or the Demand. We bring the capture IP.

Industrial Partners

Fuel Producers & Bio-Industrial Operators

Partners looking to generate new carbon revenue from existing operations, accessing compliance and clean fuel markets without changing their core business.

Storage & CDR

Sink Operators & CDR Buyers

Partners with geological storage seeking proven capture IP, and buyers who need high-integrity, removal-grade CO₂ tonnes.

Contact

Let's talk.

Open to conversations with the right partners, customers, and investors.

GAIA Analytics

Technology

Low-energy liquid capture, built to sit where the storage is

A fan pushes ordinary air through panels of wet felt (KOH). The liquid on that felt grabs the CO₂ out of the air and holds it. Nothing is heated, nothing is burned, and the whole thing runs at ordinary temperature and pressure.

Getting the CO₂ back out again is where a capture process spends most of its energy (usually as heat, or as electricity off the grid). We use bacteria instead. They feed on ethanol, and in doing so they release the CO₂ in pure form and recharge the capture liquid (KOH) so it can go around again. The cell that completes the circuit makes electricity rather than using it.

The result is a process that draws 161 kWh of grid power per tonne. The rest of the required process energy (975 kWh) arrives as ethanol (~86%). Each molecule of ethanol puts eight molecules of CO₂ underground: six pulled from the air, and two from the ethanol itself, which came from plants and is stored along with the rest.

Here is what decides whether any of it scales. Ethanol travels, on rail and roads that already exist. Because the energy comes to the plant, the plant doesn’t have to be built where clean power happens to be (or not be in the case of waiting for new clean generation, or queued behind data centers), it can be built at the storage site. That leaves 35 places in North America where we can site our platform today.

The video below follows a single tonne of CO₂ through the platform, molecule by molecule.

GAIA Refinery Platform — click to watch
▶

Where DAC Can Actually Go

The Constraint Is the Opportunity.

AC projects need gigawatts of renewable power. GAIA’s low-energy design reduces dependence on grid power by 10x, making it deployable where conventional DAC cannot go.

Operational projects need permitted and durable CO₂ storage. Many pipelines and Class VI permits are stuck in regulatory approval cycles, or don’t exist yet.

The overlap between sites with available clean power AND approved sequestration is vanishingly small. GAIA’s modular units can be deployed directly at sequestration sites, eliminating the need for CO₂ transport infrastructure. And because GAIA isn’t constrained by grid access or pipeline infrastructure, it can operate at sequestration sites that are out of reach for conventional DAC.

Constraint 01

Renewable Power Already Spoken For

Large-scale DAC requires hundreds of megawatts of clean electricity. The best renewable sites across the U.S. Southwest and Great Plains are under long-term contracts with tech hyperscalers building AI infrastructure. Existing DAC hubs like Stratos and Project Bison were sited specifically because this energy was available. There are very few places left like that.

Constraint 02

CO₂ Pipelines Are Still on Paper

Transporting captured CO₂ to geological storage requires dedicated pipeline infrastructure. Most proposed routes are still in permitting or early construction. Projects dependent on this network are stalled waiting for rights-of-way that don’t exist yet.

GAIA’s Approach

Any Approved Site. Rail-Ready Ethanol. Minimal Grid Draw.

GAIA’s bio-electrochemical process runs at low electrical load and uses ethanol as the energy carrier. Ethanol ships by rail. Approved sequestration sites already exist across North America and beyond. GAIA can deploy at existing DAC hubs, and at every sequestration-approved site they can’t reach.

If You Want to Go Deeper

The work behind every number in this deck.

Each of the following is a written brief or explainer paper, sourced and ready. Email us to request the ones you want and we will walk you through it.

The Energy Position
Why all DAC is power-constrained, the 33-sink inventory, and what grid carbon intensity does to a tonne at each one.
The TEA / LCA
Levelized cost per tonne at pilot and at 100,000 t/y facility. The full carbon balance: what a captured tonne actually nets after the carrier, the grid, and transport.
The Competitive Analysis
Every architecture in DAC, the physical frontier each one lives on, and the cost ledger. Demonstrated metrics against claimed ones.
The Ethanol Explainer
Ethanol supply, carbon intensity by plant tier, the iLUC question taken seriously, and what each regime counts.
The Architecture Update
Why bio-oxidation and alkali regeneration are physically separated now, and what that buys in current density and maintenance.
The Commercialization Path
Two deployment models from one platform, the ceiling on each, and the trade-offs we are knowingly accepting.
Request Access → gshaw@gaiarefinery.com

GAIA Advantage

Not a Plant. Not a Project.
A Platform, Built to Scale.

We’re not betting on one site, we’re building a platform that wins across all of them.

01 · Energy

Designed Around Efficiency

GAIA’s process rethinks energy sources. Our bio-electrochemical loop, powered by biogenic ethanol sidesteps the fight for renewable electrons, making it practical to run almost anywhere without a strain on the grid.

02 · Flexibility

Goes Where Others Can’t

GAIA doesn’t need to be built near a renewable energy farm or a CO₂ pipeline. It can go directly to an underground storage site, opening up a much wider map of places where carbon removal is actually possible.

03 · Impact

Real, Permanent Removal

The CO₂ GAIA captures doesn’t get offset or traded on paper. It goes underground, permanently. The kind of removal scientists say we actually need to address what’s already in the atmosphere.

Analytics Access

GAIA Analytics

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