FIELD TESTING, Germany

PILOT PHASE – FIELD TESTING ACROSS FOUR SITES

Every scalable carbon removal technology has a critical gap to bridge: the step from laboratory validation to reliable real-world operations. Before Planeteers built and validated its first production unit, we ran an extensive pilot phase across four different facilities in Germany: Hamburg, Hetlingen, Kiel, and Wuppertal. This phase marked the transition from our early lab setup to on-site deployment — testing our technology under real operating conditions, with real CO₂ streams, and real water systems.

Why four pilot sites?

Because performance in the field is shaped by local conditions. Industrial and municipal infrastructure differs from site to site — and those differences determine how a technology operates, integrates, and scales. Across the four sites, we focused on validating the full chain of operations under varying conditions, including:

CO₂ source characteristics

Different facilities provide different CO₂ compositions and operational profiles.

Testing across these conditions helped ensure stable reactor performance and process control.

Water chemistry and local mixing conditions

Water is the reaction environment.

Parameters such as pH, temperature, salinity influences, and baseline alkalinity directly affect reaction behavior and operational stability.

Mineral feedstock handling and sourcing

Mineral feedstock is a key lever in our process.

The pilot phase allowed us to test handling, dosing, and operational consistency under different site realities.

Integration into existing infrastructure

Scale requires integration into real plants — not rebuilding facilities from scratch.

Our pilots were designed to connect with existing industrial and municipal systems, validating installation, operation, and practical uptime.

From prototype to operational readiness

Planeteers’ first prototype reactor was developed in 2023 and then intensely tested across multiple sites in 2024.

This pilot phase was not about claims – it was about building operational confidence.

The result

A robust technology baseline to safely move from field testing to a validated production unit, and to support future commercial deployments.

From pilots to production

Pilot sites gave us the key lesson early:

Scaling carbon removal means engineering for variability, not ideal conditions.

The learnings from Hamburg, Hetlingen, Kiel, and Wuppertal directly shaped our first production deployment — and continue to define the engineering requirements for commercial-scale plants with measurable, permanent climate impact.