An Irish venture that aims to extract carbon dioxide from the air with farms of mechanical trees has unveiled its first prototype at the University of Arizona.

Carbon Collect’s ‘MechanicalTree’ is a tall column with disks inside that collect carbon from ambient air. Once loaded with carbon, the stack of discs retracts into the base unit, where the captured carbon is sequestered.

The project promoters say the captured carbon could be sold for re-use, and that the mechanical extractor is up to a thousand times more efficient at removing CO2 from the air than a natural tree.

The technology has been developed by Klaus Lackner, an engineering professor at Arizona State University. The first MechanicalTree is now functioning on ASU’s Tempe campus.

Operating company Carbon Collect Ltd was established in 2018 by ASU, Lackner and a number of Irish investors, led by John McKeon.

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McKeon, an oil and gas explorer, received the largest shares allotment in the company’s first allotment in February 2019, when 99 million almost free shares were issued. McKeon stepped down as a director of the company last year.

The Currency is reporting that In recently lodged Commercial Court proceedings three stakeholders including John McKeon claim they have been subject to an unlawful campaign of oppression as part of an internal battle for control of the company.

They say they were ousted from the board after raising corporate governance concerns and that their holdings were subsequently diluted. The two other members bringing the case are Susan McKeon and UK based American businessman Nicholas Baker Yanicelli.,

In a number of funding rounds since May 2020, Carbon Collect has raised €2.6m in equity capital, including €400,000 from taxpayers through Enterprise Ireland state aid.

Unlike other direct air capture technologies, the MechanicalTree can remove CO2 from the atmosphere without the need to use blowers or fans.

Carbon Collect wants to scale the technology starting with a series of direct air capture carbon farms to capture c.1,000 tons of CO2 per day, designs for which are being completed.

“Our passive process is the evolution of carbon-capture technology, which has the ability to be both economically and technologically viable at scale in a reasonably short time frame," says CEO Pól Ó Móráin.

He added that the company intends to progress to a second funding round prior to the end of 2022.