SQUAMISH, British Columbia (October 31, 2022) — Today, Carbon Engineering (CE) announced it has begun front-end planning and engineering for Direct Air Capture (DAC) facilities at a second site in the U.S., in Kleberg County, Texas. The site is expected to provide access for the potential construction of multiple DAC facilities that would be capable of collectively removing up to 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually for dedicated sequestration.
CE has been contracted by its U.S. development partner, 1PointFive, for the front-end planning and engineering of a one-megatonne DAC facility that is intended to be replicated into multi-million tonne deployments. The design is being adapted from the first large-scale, commercial facility to use CE’s DAC technology, which is already under construction in the Texas Permian Basin, and is anticipated to form the basis of accelerated large-scale deployments in the U.S.
These additional DAC facilities will be located in the Gulf Coast region, which provides another site with ideal pore space for dedicated sequestration. At this location, the DAC facilities will be paired with standalone geologic sequestration to deliver secure and verifiable carbon dioxide removal. This provides a cost-effective solution that hard-to-decarbonize industries can combine with emissions reduction programs to achieve true net zero.
Using its recently-announced deployment approach to enable global build-out of plants, CE is performing this work at an accelerated pace. CE expects to complete this work roughly 50 per cent faster than earlier projects. Once complete, CE will have produced the required materials to be ready to replicate megatonne DAC trains within multi-megatonne facilities.
“This work brings together all our progress from the past months to get us ready for major deployment in the U.S.,” said Daniel Friedmann, CE’s CEO. “Working hand in hand with our partners at Occidental and 1PointFive, we’ve been focused on building an accelerated deployment approach, while simultaneously beginning construction of the first, large-scale commercial facility in Texas. Now, with this ‘copy and paste’ megatonne DAC facility, we’re working towards widespread, multi-million tonne deployments across the U.S.”
From its dedicated technology development and Innovation Centre in British Columbia, Canada, CE is also continuously improving its DAC technology. CE is currently testing an improved capture material at the centre and expects to validate this development for commercial rollout by the end of the year. Initial tests indicate this new material could produce an approximately 20 percent improvement in capture efficiency, which could result in further energy and cost savings for commercial facilities.
“The Innovation Centre has been instrumental in validating technology improvements at scale,” said Scott Willis, CE’s VP of Technology and Engineering. “The centre is designed to provide our scientists, engineers and technicians with an environment where they can continuously test and prove technology advancements which can be placed into commercial plant designs. It operates on a ‘run-replace-run’ philosophy, validating commercial operation over extended periods and continuously improving our future plants.”
This announcement follows the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which includes increased incentives for U.S. DAC projects. This important piece of legislation is a key enabler for the acceleration of DAC projects across the U.S. and sets a strong precedent for meaningful climate action on the global stage.
More information on the site and land lease agreement can be found in Occidental’s news release here.
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Pictured: New capture material lined up outside the Carbon Engineering Innovation Centre for installation – now installed.
About Carbon Engineering:
Carbon Engineering (CE) is a climate solutions company. CE is focused on the global deployment of large-scale Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that captures carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere so it can be permanently stored deep underground or used to produce clean, affordable transportation fuels. With its partners, CE is working to deploy large-scale, commercial DAC facilities in multiple markets around the globe. More at carbonengineering.com.
