The Great Carbon Quest

In an earlier article, we had discussed Direct Air Capture (DAC) as one of the many ways of carbon dioxide reduction. We saw that DAC involves the pulling in of large amounts of air using giant fans or pumps, which is then passed through chemicals. The chemicals react with air in such a manner that carbon dioxide is trapped, and the other air is released. This pure stream of carbon dioxide is then carried to underground reservoirs for storage. We also saw that DAC is a highly capital-intensive process and requires a steady supply of green energy for it to be meaningful. There are very few such operational projects at the moment, with many being planned. The main operational DAC project in the world is the Climeworks project in Iceland: the Orca plant and the Mammoth project. The Heirloom Plant in California is also operational, but is much smaller than the Climeworks plants. The South Texas Hub and the Project Cypress Hub in Louisiana are being planned in the USA on a much larger scale, but the progress on these is uncertain after the election of President Trump as the President of the USA. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that there are 27 DAC projects in the world, and another 130 projects are in various stages of planning. Most of the DAC plants under operation are small operations. Let us discuss the operational DAC projects.

Climeworks’ Iceland DAC Plants

There are two DAC plants located near the Hellisheidi geothermal plant: the smaller Orca plant, which can remove 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and the Mammoth plant, which can remove 36,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Mammoth plant was commissioned in May 2024. The location of Iceland is not coincidental: it has been carefully chosen because of a steady supply of green geothermal energy. Further, the Mammoth plant is situated near a dormant volcano, which provides large storage space for the CO2 captured. The storage partner of Climeworks is a company called Carbfix, which injects the carbon dioxide into deep basalt rocks, where it gets converted into carbonate minerals and stored for over 10,000 years. In the words of the co-founder of Climeworks, Christophe Gribald, they intend to capture one Megaton of CO2 per year by 2030 and one Gigaton by 2050.

The smaller Orca plant was commissioned in September 2021 and can remove 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The DAC plants of Climeworks have been successful in both raising funds for their operations and finding customers for the green carbon credits they have created. Their funding came from a variety of sources, ranging from GIC of Singapore to private equity firms such as Partners Group and BigPoint Holdings. Their earliest customers were two European Airlines: Swiss Air and Lufthansa, and they quickly expanded to include Microsoft, BCG, JP Morgan, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines.

DAC Plants under Development

Most of the large plants under development are in the USA and have been planned in pursuance of a USD 3.5 billion grant to develop DAC hubs under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Stratos DAC Plant, Texas: Developed by 1Point Five (USA) and Carbon Engineering (Canada), this facility will remove 5,00,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, becoming the world’s largest DAC plant, once operational.

South Texas DAC Hub: Also by 1Point Five, this Kleberg County project mirrors Stratos’ design, targeting 5,00,000 tonnes yearly with plans for 3 billion tonnes of long-term storage.

Norway DAC Projects: Norway, with its large supply of renewable energy, is developing into a large DAC hub in the world. Three large projects being planned are: the Carbon Engineering and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) project in the Koollsnes area, with a capacity to remove 5,00,000 to one million tonnes of CO2 per year, the Climeworks project with Northern Lights infrastructure and the Removr plant with a capacity to remove one million tonnes of CO2 per year.

Project Cypress Hub, Louisiana: This hub is being developed by the US Department of Energy at two locations in Louisiana: Calcasieu Parish near Vinton (will use Climeworks’ technology) and Caddo Parish at the Port of Caddo-Bossier (will use Heirloom’s technology), to remove one million tonnes of CO2 per year when operational.

Conclusion

Direct Air Capture is an important technological intervention and should be a part of the strategy across the world to achieve net-zero emissions. While it is highly capital-intensive and costly at the moment, costs are likely to fall as more and more plants become operational.