Spiritus has built a novel approach to direct air carbon capture that relies on a material that absorbs carbon dioxide passively. When the lung-like "fruit" have been collected from the carbon "orchard," they will be put in a container, where low heat will be applied to remove the carbon dioxide. That's important because while carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are at record high levels, carbon dioxide is still diluted and makes up a relatively small percentage of the air. That third component — economical — is critical in the direct air carbon capture field, and is part of what drew Khosla Ventures to make its first direct air capture investment in Spiritus. "We're able to remove about 1,000 times more carbon dioxide than a forest can.

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Persons: Charles Cadieu, Matt Lee, Spiritus, Lee, Lee hadn't, Cadieu, Melinda Gates, she's, Leonardo da Vinci, We've, Rajesh Swaminathan, Swaminathan, what's Organizations: Silicon, Khosla Ventures, Page One Ventures, CNBC, Los Alamos National Lab, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Melinda Gates Foundation, GE Healthcare, Yahoo, Ventures, U.S . Department of Energy Locations: Western U.S, Spiritus