Roanoke Times Showcases MOVA’s Achievements in Direct Air Capture and Carbon Dioxide Utilization

March 28th, 2024 (Pulaski, VA.) — Entrepreneurs have unveiled what they called a successful indoor vegetable harvest made possible by carbon dioxide sucked in from the outside air.

The harvest, of lettuce, demonstrates the power of a proprietary carbon-capture technology that can feed essential carbon dioxide into indoor farms like one planned in a former Pulaski school where the demonstration took place Wednesday.

Celebrating was Pulaski-based MOVA Technologies, which owns the technology. Officials said their devices could also provide the fizz for soda or beer or fill fire extinguishers, among other possible industrial applications, all while fighting climate Change. Carbon dioxide is a resource, not merely a climate-changing pollutant, when made usable at the point of capture as in the Pulaski demonstration, according to Steve Critchfield, MOVA’s founder and president.

“The key thing is, why make new CO2 and increase the global warming problem when

you can just capture it from the atmosphere and use it there?” Critchfield said.

Indoor farms offer advantages over traditional agriculture, such as year-around production, but must receive carbon dioxide to operate. The lettuce harvested Wednesday grew in a tent inside a classroom at the former Jefferson elementary school in Pulaski, which last had students 30 years ago and which the project owns. The tent contained 800 to 1000 molecules of carbon dioxide per million molecules of air, meaning a concentration about twice the level outdoors that is triggering global climate change, which was deliberate to enhance plant growth.

An agriculture partner in the project is Vegg Inc., a controlled-environment agriculture company in Pulaski that collaborates with MOVA. Luke Allison, Vegg’s chief development officer, described the lettuce as “delicious.”

But to go forward, the partnership needs to raise money to fully equip the schoolhouse into a commercial-scale, indoor, hydroponic farm. It will cost millions. Critchfield said investors did not want to provide the funds until they knew the technology worked.

“Now we know it works,” he said.

At the full-scale grow center envisioned, one system will capture rainwater and LEDs

will shine on the plants, while MOVA’s filters draw carbon dioxide from the outside. Vegg hopes to pivot from establishing one center in Pulaski to establishing more in some of the many vacant schools across rural Virginia, Allison said.

“This is actually a way for anybody to become a farmer without needing to inherit their family’s farm,” Allison said. He is also Director of Advancement and Communications at MOVA.

MOVA intends to supply the carbon-capture units for the indoor farms and develop a related technology the company said captures ammonia from livestock houses.

Also active in Pulaski real estate development, Critchfield expressed hope that MOVA’s collaboration with Vegg sets in motion the future establishment of a climate-smart industrial complex capable of vastly brightening the small town’s economic future. When considered alongside the AI-based unmanned systems development going on in the Blacksburg area and the biomedical activity expanding in Roanoke, the result could be a high-tech hub “just like the Research Triangle in Raleigh-Durham,” Critchfield said. “That’s the trinity of the new economy. Those are the three things that are going to basically propel the new economy.”

For media inquiries or further information, please contact:
Luke Allison, Director of Advancement and Communications
MOVA Technologies Inc.
Phone: (540) 808-9452
Email: lallison@movatechnologies.com

About MOVA Technologies:
MOVA Technologies is a forward-thinking company dedicated to developing cutting-edge solutions for carbon capture and climate change mitigation across multiple sectors. With its novel Selective Air Capture Technology, MOVA is revolutionizing the way pollutants are captured, making it more efficient and accessible for industries and communities. MOVA is committed to driving innovation in the climate tech sector and accelerating the transition to a sustainable, carbon-neutral future. Learn more at www.movatechnologies.com.