Carbon Engineering

Carbon Engineering's DAC system integrates two main cycles. The first cycle is the absorption of CO₂ from the atmosphere in a device called an "air contactor" using an alkaline hydroxide solution.[5][11] The second cycle regenerates the capture liquid used in the air contactor, and delivers pure CO₂ as an end product.[12][11][13] These cycles operate in tandem continuously, producing a concentrated stream of CO₂ gas as an output, and requiring only energy, water, and small material make up streams as inputs. Energy is used in such a way that no new CO₂ emissions are incurred, and thus do not counteract what was captured from the air.[14] The captured atmospheric CO₂ can be stored underground, used for enhanced oil recovery, or turned into low-carbon synthetic fuels using the company's AIR TO FUELS™ technology.[9][14][3]

Carbon Engineering's Air to fuel process can produce fuels such as gasoline, diesel, or jet A using inputs of atmospheric CO₂, water, and renewable electricity such as that from solar PV. Electricity is used to split water and manufacture hydrogen, which is then combined with captured atmospheric CO₂ to form fuels.[15] This approach offers a means to deliver clean fuels that are compatible with existing engines, and can help de-carbonize the transportation sector by displacing fuels made from crude oil.

In 2015, Carbon Engineering started operations of its full end-to-end pilot plant, located in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. When running, this facility captures roughly 1 ton of atmospheric CO₂ per day.[9] In 2017, the company incorporated fuel synthesis capability into the DAC pilot plant and converted CO₂ into fuel for the first time in December 2017.

Based on the data obtained from the pilot plant, David Keith and Carbon Engineering published a manuscript on June 7, 2018 that presents a simulation suggesting that CO₂ can be captured from the atmosphere at a cost of 94 to 233 USD per ton, "[d]epending on financial assumptions, energy costs, and the specific choice of inputs and outputs."[16] The manuscript, titled "A process for capturing CO₂ from the atmosphere," was published in the journal Joule.

Both DAC and Air to fuel technologies have been proven at the pilot plant and are now being scaled up into commercial markets. Individual DAC facilities can be built to capture 1 million tons of CO₂ per year.[17] At that scale, one Carbon Engineering air capture plant could negate the emissions from ~250,000 cars—either by sequestering the CO₂ or by using the recycled carbon dioxide as a feedstock to produce synthetic fuel.[18]

Over 9,500 of Carbon Engineering's air capture plants would be needed to offset the annual CO₂ emissions from the estimated 2 billion vehicles by 2035,[19] which includes medium and heavy trucks that emit significantly more greenhouse gases than passenger vehicles.[20] More still would be needed once aviation, mining, agriculture, construction and non-vehicle emissions are factored in.

In May 2019, Carbon Engineering announced it was partnering with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, LLC. (OLCV), a subsidiary of Occidental, to design and engineer a large-scale Direct Air Capture plant capable of capturing 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year, which would be used in OLCV’s enhanced oil recovery operations and subsequently stored underground permanently.[21][22] Construction for the plant is expected to begin in 2021, with the plant becoming operational within approximately two years, and it will be located in the Permian Basin.[22] In September 2019, Carbon Engineering announced they were expanding the capacity of the design of the plant from 500,000 metric tons to an expected one million metric tons of CO₂ captured per year.[22]

• Official website
• "How One Company Pulls Carbon From The Air, Aiming To Avert A Climate Catastrophe" December 10, 2018 NPR.org
• Katie Brigham: Bill Gates and Big Oil back this company that’s trying to solve climate change by sucking CO2 out of the air, CNBC, 22 June 2019