Breakthrough reduces carbon capture costs to less than $50/ton—enabling fossil-price e-fuels to power AI, industry, and transportation at scale without subsidies or the grid

Prometheus Fuels , the company producing low-cost carbon neutral fuels from direct air capture and renewable electricity,  announced it has achieved the lowest-cost carbon capture in the world, reducing the cost of Direct Air Capture (DAC) by more than 80 percent compared to industry averages. At under $50 per ton, Prometheus’ DAC cost breakthrough unlocks carbon neutral fuels at fossil fuel prices, without relying on subsidies, biogenic carbon, or point-source emissions.

The achievement is demonstrated in Prometheus’ new 200-ton-per-year DAC system, currently under construction and scheduled for completion this year. The system captures CO₂ directly from ambient air into water and feeds it into the company’s patented Faraday Reactor for immediate conversion into fuel. This streamlined approach bypasses traditional gas purification, compression, absorption and desorption, and costly infrastructure – dramatically reducing both energy use and capital requirements.

The announcement comes as policymakers, investors, and major emitters race to identify new carbon neutral power sources. With subsidy-driven approaches under pressure and most carbon capture technologies still too expensive to scale, Prometheus’ breakthrough offers a commercially ready, cost-competitive, new source of power – liquid fuels made from solar that can provide 24/7 carbon neutral electricity, propulsion, and heat anywhere in the world.

“Low-cost DAC unlocks the best solar locations, far away from point sources of CO₂,” said Rob McGinnis, founder and CEO of Prometheus. “By developing a new low-cost DAC technology, along with our hydrocarbon electrolysis Faraday Reactor, we’ve brought carbon capture below $50 a ton and made truly affordable e-fuels possible for the first time.”

Most DAC systems cost between $200 and $600 per ton of CO₂ captured, making it virtually impossible to produce synthetic fuels that compete with fossil fuel prices. Prometheus’ breakthrough slashes that cost by more than 80 percent, offering the first commercially viable model for scalable, carbon neutral fuel production.

Unlike conventional e-fuel approaches that rely on smokestacks or bio-derived CO₂, Prometheus’ modular, off-grid system gives it full geographic and economic flexibility. By decoupling fuel production from traditional carbon sources, Prometheus can site its systems wherever renewable electricity is cheapest, and inexpensively transport liquid fuels anywhere in the world.

“This isn’t just a scientific breakthrough, it’s a whole new business model,” added McGinnis. “When you combine ultra-low-cost DAC with modular, off-grid electrochemical fuel production, you open up access to remote, off-grid solar – the cheapest source of energy on the planet – making it available anywhere in the world as a new low-cost source of 24/7, firm, dispatchable, carbon neutral power.”

The company’s DAC costs and fuel economics were independently validated by Ramboll, a global engineering firm, in a detailed techno-economic analysis of Prometheus’ full production process.

Prometheus has operated the world’s only commercial-scale DAC prototype for more than four years. That system is actively producing e-fuels at the company’s Titan Forge Alpha pilot plant today. The new modular 200-ton system builds on this proven platform to scale production and meet growing demand from sectors including AI power, factories, green steel, aviation, shipping, and cities, where this new source of carbon neutral power can stabilize the grid by fueling peaker and baseload plants.

Source:BusinessWire