Carbyon promises to capture the past for a carbon-neutral future

The air above the High Tech Campus Eindhoven was thick with anticipation last night. Carbyon, the deep-tech startup working on direct air capture (DAC), officially unveiled its first outdoor machine: Carbyon Go. With a mix of storytelling, technical detail, and bold ambition, the evening underscored one thing: the race to capture carbon from the sky is no longer science fiction.

“We captured the sky. We built a machine that will capture the past for a carbon-neutral future,” said Hans de Neve, founder and CEO of Carbyon, as he closed the event. The line, repeated to loud applause, neatly summarized both the urgency and audacity of the Eindhoven-based company’s mission.

A climate story written in carbon

The evening began with a sweeping narrative from Marco Arts, Carbyon’s storyteller-in-chief. He traced the journey of carbon across millions of years, once safely locked underground, later unleashed by human progress.

“For ages, the earth held a perfect balance at 280 parts per million,” Arts said. “Today we are at 420 ppm, the highest level in two million years.” His words served as a reminder of both the invisible danger and the urgency of action.

It was not a dry lecture. Arts evoked forests, oceans, steam engines, and satellites, weaving a story of abundance turned into crisis. The buildup led to a simple, pressing question: Can we still fix it?

A forest in a box

For Carbyon Go's project lead, Juliette van der Lof, the answer is yes - and it looks like a modular machine built in Eindhoven. Standing before the first Carbyon Go unit, she unveiled the details. “Finally, we can show you Carbyon Go, the fastest direct air capture machine in the world,” she said. “Back in January, we started the engineering phase. And here we are, just nine months later.”

The principle is simple: air flows in, CO₂ molecules attach to a specially designed sorbent, a gentle heat pulse releases the gas, and pure CO₂ emerges, ready for storage or reuse. However, it is the speed that sets Carbyon apart. “Our sorbent saturates within 90 seconds. That’s 200 times faster than most direct air capture machines out there. Time matters when the clock is ticking.”

Each Carbyon Go unit captures 3,000 kilograms of CO₂ per year, equivalent to 150 trees. But the next generation, Van der Lof promised, will capture 25 times more. “Think of it as a forest in a box. It uses less space, no water, and works 24/7.” And perhaps most importantly: it’s mobile. “You can build plants like Lego bricks, transport them in containers, and deploy them wherever renewable energy is abundant.”

Scaling ambition

The challenge, of course, is scale. A single machine won’t bend the global emissions curve. Hans de Neve stressed that Carbyon is only at the baseline. “This is proven technology, but it will keep improving, just like solar panels and batteries did. Each new version will get cheaper and more powerful.”

He laid out the numbers: one full-scale Carbyon system, built from multiple Go modules, could capture 3,000 tons of CO₂ per year, the work of 4,000 trees. Build 10,000 systems, and the equivalent of 40 million trees stand in the sky.

And why stop there? “If we produce 100 million units - like the car industry builds every year - we could meet the global demand of 5 gigatons per year. It’s a trillion-dollar market.” Importantly, CO₂ is not just waste. De Neve sees it as the feedstock for a circular economy: “You can turn it into fuels, chemicals, cement, even feed it to greenhouses," pointing to Carbyon's very own little greenhouse built next to Carbyon Go. "All the products we rely on today can be made without fossil resources."

15 million for Carbyon to demonstrate its fast-swing Direct Air Capture technology

Carbyon's technology allows large amounts of CO2 to be extracted from the air in a short period of time, leading to significantly reduced costs and energy consumption.

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The ecosystem view

Constantijn van Oranje, in his role as special envoy for TechLeap, provided the broader perspective. He praised Carbyon’s journey since winning the X Prize and joining TechLeap’s Pole Position program. “This is climate deep tech at its best,” he said. “The Netherlands has a right to play in this field. What better purpose than to invest in technology that helps solve the hardest problems in climate change?”

But he also struck a cautionary note: scaling up requires not just great technology, but capital and markets. “Too many startups get stuck in the valley of death. We need ambitious entrepreneurs, but also governments that create demand - by procuring machines, setting norms, and pricing carbon.”

Comparing Europe to the United States, he pointed to the deeper expertise and larger funds across the Atlantic. “Our investor scene is less mature. We need bigger funds, and more specialized ones, to truly support deep tech at scale.”

Capturing the past

The evening closed with symbolism. Each guest received a small bottle of air, purified by the Carbyon Go machine. De Neve framed it as both a gift and a promise. “This is just the start. We won’t stop. Let this be the day the world starts going climate positive.”

Whether Carbyon can truly capture the past to secure the future remains to be seen. But in Eindhoven, on this September night, the company made one thing clear: they are ready to try, and they are asking the world to join them.