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fortyfour – Capturing CO2 from air to boost plant growth

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Project data

  • Project no: GRS-009/25 
  • Amount of funding: CHF 125'000 
  • Approved: 23.04.2025 
  • Duration: 06.2025 - 05.2026 
  • Area of activity:  First Ventures, seit 2018

Project management

Project description

Just as we need clean air to breathe, plants in greenhouses need the right amount of carbon dioxide (CO ) to thrive. What most people don't realize is that in greenhouse CO levels can drop so low that plants essentially start gasping for air, severely limiting food production.
The current solution creates a troubling paradox: to feed more people, farmers need to inject fossil CO , directly contributing to climate change. The scale is staggering—European greenhouses alone consume around 50 million tons of CO annually, double the emissions of all Swiss cars combined.
fortyfour has developed a breakthrough that transforms this contradiction into an opportunity. Their innovative Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology harvests CO directly from the atmosphere using only renewable electricity. Instead of releasing new fossil carbon, their system feeds plants with CO that's already in our air—creating a sustainable, closed-loop system.
This technology is deployed next to greenhouses and seamlessly integrates with existing greenhouse operations, precisely maintaining optimal CO concentrations between 800-1,200 ppm — the scientific sweet spot for plant growth. By eliminating the need for compression, storage, and transportation of CO , fortyfour provides greenhouses with a sustainable, cost-effective and self-sufficient solution for boosting food production.

Status/Results

Comprehensive simulations have yielded exceptionally promising results, with multiple laboratory experiments already successfully validating these findings. Moving beyond the research phase, we're now building a sophisticated pilot plant for real-world testing of our carbon-neutral greenhouse cultivation technology.
This pilot plant will bring us closer to achieving proof of concept in a relevant environment ( TRL 6/7), demonstrating the full capabilities of our technology in operational conditions. We've linked up with several key industrial stakeholders, including commercial greenhouse operators who are awaiting the deployment of our pilot system. This will provide valuable insights which we can further incorporate into our plant design, positioning us to transition from successful testing to market entry.

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Persons involved in the project

Mathias Müller, R&D, project leader
Pedro Reina, R&D, co-project leader
Henry Müller, Business, co-project leader

Last update to this project presentation  22.05.2025