Did you know Hawaiʻi’s buildings can produce their own clean CO₂— using the air they already circulate?

Hawai‘i imports fossil CO₂ across oceans; buildings already move the air we need. We turn that airflow into on-site, beverage-grade ≥99.98% CO₂ for carbonation—cutting Scope 3 delivery miles, stabilizing cost, and powering a “Made from Hawai‘ian Air” story—tailored to each operator's business needs.

Get Pilot Deck Calculate Your Impact How it works

Calling all carbonation-users

QSRs • Breweries • Stadiums • Grocery • Bottling • Campuses • Arenas..

University of Hawai‘i — Mānoa • Affiliated Startup
Invented & founded in Hawai‘i—built for Hawai‘i.
A UH Mānoa–affiliated venture advancing on-island CO₂ circularity.

From fragile imports to circular, on-site carbonation

On islands like Hawai‘i, carbonation is a supply-chain liability: most CO₂ is a fossil byproduct from far-away ethanol or gas processing, then shipped thousands of miles, exposed to price spikes, allocation shortages, and storage risks—with no provenance, no brand story, and no measurable local benefit. HVACapture™ / Air Bubbles™ flips that script: capture from indoor air where carbonation is used (restaurants, food courts, breweries, arenas, campuses), polish to beverage-grade on-site, and measure it end-to-end. You replace diesel miles with meters, turn Scope 3 into a verifiable reduction, and tell a premium “Made from Hawai‘ian Air” story—without changing the beverage experience.

🌋 Why Hawai‘i first (carbonation)

Highest delivered-CO₂ costs + import risk make Hawai‘i the ideal beachhead. Carbonation is a large, distributed, spec-sensitive load—perfect for small-footprint, repeatable installs with fast paybacks.

🏪 Operator-advantaged economics

Convert recurring CO₂ purchases + delivery fees into a local micro-utility. Stabilize cost, cut volatility, and recover margin with predictable on-site supply.

🍺 Carbonation today, options tomorrow

Start with beverage-grade carbonation; extend to tank pressurization/inerting, fuel-cell electricity, or SAF precursors as sites and partners dictate.

📊 MRV-ready & brandable

On-site capture → purification → storage → use with telemetry for MRV and ESG reporting. Provenance unlocks “made-on-site” sustainability marketing.

🧱 Small footprint, big scale

Modular skids fit back-of-house constraints. Scale via franchises, campuses, arenas, and airports—one install at a time into a statewide network.

🔁 Closed-loop resilience

Reduce trucked deliveries and import exposure. Local supply improves uptime, quality control, and safety at the point of use.

Explained like an air filter

Your building’s fans already push tons of air all day. We add a CO₂ filter that grabs the CO₂ molecules as air passes. When the filter is full, we gently heat/pressurize it to release pure CO₂, clean it to beverage spec, and send it to your fountains, kegs, or packaging. Every kilogram is metered and logged. It’s like installing a soda-grade CO₂ maker inside your HVAC.

Circular CO₂ for You

QSRs, breweries, bottlers, stadiums, resorts, retail, airports, and multifamily residences—turn HVAC into an on-site CO₂ asset and use it where it delivers the most value.

1 🧃 Bottling Plants ≈ 120–400 t/yr

High, continuous carbonation and line purging. Hawaiʻi plants vary by throughput.

Basis: CSD typically 6–8 g/L × plant output. Example: 20–50M L/yr ⇒ ~120–400 t/yr.

2 🏟️ Stadiums & Arenas ≈ 8–25 t/yr

Event-driven: fountains + draft beer + line purging. Honolulu venues land mid-range.

Basis: 1 lb CO₂ dispenses ~6–10 gal soda / 4–8 gal beer. Annual venue beverage volume ⇒ ~8–25 t/yr.

3 🍺 Breweries ≈ 3–140+ t/yr

Carbonation, tank pressurization, CIP/purging; scales with bbl/year. Larger HI breweries use or are adding CO₂ recovery.

Basis: purchased CO₂ ≈ 3–6 kg/hL. 1k bbl ⇒ ~3–7 t/yr; 5k bbl ⇒ ~18–35 t/yr; 20k bbl ⇒ ~70–140 t/yr.

4 🛒 Retail / Grocery (MAP) ≈ 0–10 t/yr

If MAP is done on-site: CO₂-rich mixes for meat/seafood/deli. Many HI stores receive pre-packed goods (near 0 on-site).

Basis: MAP uses CO₂-dominant mixes; on-site volume varies by in-store tray sealing vs. centralized packing.

5 🍔 QSR / Foodservice ≈ 1.2–2.4 t/yr

Per restaurant (HI): fountains plus occasional keg/draft. Cylinder or micro-bulk deliveries.

Basis: typical fast-food site uses 50–100 lb/wk ⇒ 2,600–5,200 lb/yr (1.18–2.36 t).

6 ✈️ Airports (Terminal Ops) ≈ 30–120 t/yr

Aggregate of terminal QSRs/bars + maintenance/inerting. HNL scale depends on tenant count.

Basis: sum of outlet usage (≈1.2–2.4 t/yr per QSR) × number of tenants + venue bars; add ops/inerting.

Most people don’t realize the CO₂ in drinks is usually fossil CO₂ shipped in. Air Bubbles™ replaces that with local, clean, verified carbonation captured from the same air your building already moves.

Hawai‘i Site Calculator — Simple First, Detailed When Needed

Edit the highlighted fields. Benchmarks update per segment. Results combine physics + economics.

MODE: Beginner = essential inputs • Advanced = airflow & ppm controls

Quick Inputs (Edit these)

Benchmarks (Selected Segment)

Imported CO₂: — Credit: — Payback target: 2–5 yrs

Results

Physics + economics. Updates in real time.

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CFM (effective)
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kg/day captured
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tons/yr (metric)
$—
Avoided CO₂ cost/yr
$—
Credits/yr
$—
HVAC savings/yr
$—
O&M/yr
$—
Net annual benefit
— yrs
Simple payback

Segment Insight

Methodology (simplified):
  • CFM (effective) = override or Volume (SqFt × Ceiling) × ACH ÷ 60.
  • m³/h = CFM × 0.0283168 × 60. Air density defaults to 1.2 kg/m³.
  • Δx = max((Weighted ppm − Ambient)/1,000,000, 0), where Weighted = Indoor × (1 − OA%) + Ambient × OA%.
  • Capture: kg/h = ρ × m³/h × Δx × efficiency → kg/day → tons/yr.
  • Economics: Avoided cost = tons × imported $/ton; Credits = tons × credit $/ton; O&M = CAPEX × O&M%; HVAC savings = savings% × (avoided+credits).
HVACapture™ Scope-3 Calculator (Hawaiʻi) Compare delivered CO₂ vs on-site CO₂. Edit any field.
Includes Cat.1 (purchased CO₂ + packaging) Includes Cat.4 (upstream sea + truck) Replaces Cat.1/4 with Scope 2 electricity (PV share adjustable)
Baseline
HVACapture
Baseline total
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HVACapture total
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Net reduction
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Assumptions are editable. Use island- and period-specific grid factors when available. Sea distance ~ mainland West Coast → Hawaiʻi; add inter-island legs as needed.

HVACapture™ — How It Works & Tech Stack

Air path across sorbent beds → regeneration and polishing → buffer → beverage lines, with MRV sensors
End-to-end path: HVAC return/supply air → sorbent beds → thermal/pressure swing → dryers & polish → buffer → fountain/keg/line → MRV ledger.
Modular, drop-in architecture that pairs with existing HVAC and beverage systems—vendor-agnostic and pilot-ready. Interoperable cartridges let best-in-class sorbents and sub-modules slot in as science advances.

Capture

Return/supply air routed across sorbent beds tuned for ambient CO₂. Fans already move the air—HVACapture™ adds a “carbon filter.”

Release & Polish

Thermal/pressure swing to desorb → dry → purify to beverage specs using standard gas cleanup trains.

Buffer & Deliver

On-site buffer feeds fountains, kegs/tanks, canning lines, or MAP/inerting—integrates with existing regulators and skids.

Verify

MRV stack logs every kg: sensors, flow/quality telemetry, and QR-linked receipts for credits and ESG dashboards.

Technology Stack & Patent-Pending Architecture

🎯 Sorbents (Swappable)
Amine-functionalized solids, carbonate cycles, advanced carbons, MOF-class candidates. Chosen per site humidity/temperature.
♻️ Regeneration
TSA / TVSA / PSA variants with heat-and-mass balancing; low-grade heat re-use where available.
🧪 Polishing
Dryers, coalescers, molecular sieves, catalytic polishing to meet ≥99.98% beverage spec.
🗜 Compression & Buffer
Right-sized compression, receiver sizing for event peaks; tie-ins to existing skids and lines.
🧩 Swabble™ Interface
Mechanical + controls interface that standardizes cartridges and lets new media drop in as research improves.
📊 Controls + MRV
Quality sensors, flow/pressure, uptime, and QR-based receipts; credit-program exports (Verra/Puro/Frontier-aligned).
Deep-tech notes (for engineers)
  • Sorbent envelopes: humidity-tolerant amines; optional pre-dry for high RH sites; cartridge thermal paths minimize ΔT during swing.
  • Cycle control: multi-bed staggered timing for near-continuous product flow; evap/condense energy recovery loops where applicable.
  • Spec control: inline dew-point, O₂, CO, hydrocarbons; auto-divert if out-of-spec; audit trail to MRV ledger.
  • Serviceability: front-access racks; quick-disconnect manifolds; hot-swap media.
85%Capture efficiency (benchmark)
<$100Per-ton capture cost (site-dependent)
Spec-readyBeverage-grade CO₂ path

Partnered Science & Advisory Network

We assemble **cutting-edge sorbent chemistry, HVAC systems engineering, MRV/LCA, and on-site carbonation** with support from **UH HITIDE & HNEI**, **USC Loker Institute**, and advisors from **DOE National Labs (incl. SRNL)**. This gives HVACapture™ a bench that spans lab-grade science to island-scale deployment.

BA

Brandon Arns

Founder, CEO & Inventor — Arns Innovations
Systems-level IP architecture, on-site CO₂ utilization, commercialization
System Architecture HVAC↔Carbonation IP & Licensing Pilot Deployment
SM

Dr. Smaranda Marinescu

Chief Scientific Advisor (Chemistry) — USC Loker Institute
Surface chemistry, CO₂ sorbents & catalytic interfaces for release/polish
Sorbent Design Materials Science Electro/Chem Integration
SX

Dr. Steven Xiao

Advisor — DOE Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)
Process & systems engineering; DAC/CO₂ handling standards & safety
Process Design Standards & Safety Scale-Up

UH HITIDE & HNEI — Hawaiʻi Technical Backbone

  • Campus pilots (Mānoa) — food courts, concessions, labs for MRV-ready trials
  • MRV & LCA research; grid/PV interactions for low-CI on-site CO₂
  • Student talent pipeline & open data collaboration for community benefit
MRV & LCAPV + Grid MixCampus Pilots

USC Loker Institute — Sorbents & Release Chemistry

  • Advanced sorbent screening; temperature/pressure-swing release profiles
  • Polishing to food-grade CO₂ for fountains, draft, and inerting
  • Integration studies (adsorbent cartridges, modular skids)
Sorbent ChemistryFood-Grade PolishCartridge Design

DOE National Labs (incl. SRNL) — Standards & Scale

  • Process hazard analysis; CO₂ storage/transfer best practices
  • Performance verification, controls & monitoring guidance
  • Pathways to UL/NSF compliant, vendor-agnostic deployments
StandardsVerificationScale-Up
UH HITIDE
UH HNEI
USC Loker Institute
DOE SRNL
DOE Labs (NREL/ORNL)
UH Mānoa Facilities
Hawaiʻi Food Courts
Arns Innovations

Names/affiliations shown to indicate domain expertise and collaboration focus. Formal roles are advisory/collaborator status unless otherwise contracted. We are **actively recruiting** core engineering hires in Hawaiʻi (mechanical, controls, field operations).

Request Partner Brief View Open Roles

Get a Custom Pilot Deck

We’re standing up a Hawai‘i-first pilot cluster with HITIDE & the University of Hawai‘i. Any segment can pilot a site—QSR, brewery, bottler, stadium, resort, retail, airport—and share the economics and impact.

We’ll reply within 2 business days.