Direct air capture being adopted around the world

The Canadian company playing an important role in the proposed direct air capture plant in Scotland was set up in 2009 with a clear mission — to develop and commercialise a technology that takes CO2 out of the atmosphere at megaton–scale.

Harvard professor David Keith and others had started to investigate direct air capture (DAC), due to a growing awareness that the world would not only need to bring emissions to zero, but also remove carbon from the atmosphere.

With support from a team of academic scientists, business leaders and strategic investors, Prof Keith founded Carbon Engineering (CE) to take a promising concept into real–world, hardware– driven engineering and design. Following years of prototyping, research and development, CE first captured CO2 from the air in 2015.

In partnership with 1PointFive, a development company formed by Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, CE is jointly engineering the first large–scale, commercial DAC facility.

Located in the Permian Basin in the US, this site is expected to capture one million tons of CO2 from the air annually when complete, to be permanently and safely stored deep underground in geological formations.

In parallel with the Scottish partnership with Storegga, CE is progressing opportunities for further DAC and Air to Fuels plants in several markets around the world.

CE says recent years have seen major progress in the number of countries and markets implementing climate policy, and in the types of support for DAC and low– carbon fuels.

“DAC is viable in leading jurisdictions today,” it said. “Policy–makers globally are seeking to replicate and expand successful policy frameworks, further strengthening the overall market.

“California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard has established a strong precedent in its approach to DAC–to–sequestration projects. DAC projects anywhere in the world that permanently store atmospheric CO2 underground can generate credits for the decarbonisation of California’s transportation sector.

“The trend is clear — leading markets have recognised the value that DAC and clean fuels can play in our efforts to get to net zero and are working to incorporate them as fast as possible.

“As these leading policies, and more to follow, spread and tighten around the world, there is increasing potential for widespread global deployment of DAC.”

The trend is clear — leading markets have recognised the value of DAC