Italian company CarpeCarbon has partnered with Michelin Italiana, agreeing to deploy its first industrial-scale direct air capture (DAC) technology at Western Europe’s largest Michelin tyre production site in Cuneo, Italy.

Under the partnership, CarpeCarbon will build a DAC plant at this site, where the technology will capture atmospheric CO2 emissions. The captured carbon will be utilized in Michelin Italiana’s production processes, and the remaining surplus of captured CO2 will be processed for storage. 

For CarpeCarbon, this milestone deployment follows a successful pilot installation completed in the Italian city of Turin, which validated the company’s DAC approach. 

The Cuneo DAC plant comes with a nominal capacity of 300 tonnes of CO2 per year, and the facility is expected to become operational in the second half of 2027.

In a big-picture perspective, the deployment at Michelin Italiana’s Cuneo site aligns with CarpeCarbon’s goals of reaching a total capture capacity of 5,000 tonnes per year in 2028-2029 and 50,000 tonnes per year from 2030.

To achieve these goals, the DAC company is relying on a growth model based on modular plants that can be integrated directly into existing industrial sites, where they are partially powered by waste heat available on-site, as well as stand-alone modular plants powered exclusively by solar heat. 

Designed with optimized energy efficiency in mind, CarpeCarbon’s technology will use low-temperature heat at Michelin Italiana’s site, including heat recovered from the production processes and heat produced by solar thermal collectors. 

By integrating DAC technology into an existing industrial context, this project is valorizing waste heat available on-site while also providing a reliable supply of CO2 for production needs.

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