Carbon Engineering

Carbon Engineering Ltd. is a Canadian-based clean energy company focusing on the commercialization of direct air capture (DAC) technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere.[1][2]

This article is about the company. For the processes, see Carbon engineering (disambiguation).
Carbon Engineering Ltd.
TypePrivate
IndustryDirect air capture
Founded2009 Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersSquamish, British Columbia, Canada
Key people
Daniel Friedmann, Chief Executive Officer, Board Chair
Kerri L. Fox, Chief Financial Officer
David Keith, Founder, Board Member
Websitecarbonengineering.com

This captured CO2 can either be stored underground, or converted into carbon-neutral fuel using renewable energy sources, by a process the company calls "air to fuels".[3] The company is running a pilot plant in Squamish, British Columbia, removing CO2 from the atmosphere since 2015 and converting it into fuels since December 2017.[4]

The company was founded in 2009 by David Keith, now a board member as well as a professor of public policy and applied physics at Harvard University,[5] and is now led by Daniel Friedmann as CEO, who served as the former CEO of Canadian aerospace company, MDA, for 20 years.[6]

Carbon Engineering is funded by several government and sustainability-focused agencies as well as by private investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier N. Murray Edwards.[7][8][9] In addition, in 2019 the company received US$68 million from private investors, including fossil fuel companies Chevron Corporation, Occidental Petroleum, and BHP.[10] In August 2023, Occidental Petroleum bought Carbon Engineering for $1.1B, with payments over 3 years, and the intention to build 100 DAC plants.[11]

Technology

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][12] via patents such as US20140271379A1 and US20150329369A1. The second cycle regenerates the capture liquid used in the air contactor, and delivers pure CO2 as an end product.[13][12][14] 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.[15] 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 fuel" technology.[9][15][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 panels. Electricity is used to split water (by electrolysis) and manufacture hydrogen, which is then combined with captured atmospheric CO2 to form fuels.[16] 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.

Pilot plant demonstration

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, Keith and colleagues published an article in 2018 that presents a simulation suggesting that CO2 can be captured from the atmosphere at a cost of between US$94 to US$233 per ton, "depending on financial assumptions, energy costs, and the specific choice of inputs and outputs".[17]

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.[18] 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.

Commercialization

In May 2019, Carbon Engineering announced it was partnering with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, LLC. (OLCV), a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, to design and engineer a large-scale DAC plant capable of capturing 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air each year, which would be used in OLCV's enhanced oil recovery operations and subsequently stored underground permanently.[19][20] Located in the Permian Basin, construction for the plant is expected to begin in 2022,[21] with operations targeted for 2024.[22] In September 2019, Carbon Engineering announced they were expanding the capacity of the design of the plant from 500,000 tonnes to an expected one million tonnes of CO2 captured per year.[20] In August 2023, it was announced Occidental Petroleum had acquired all the outstanding equity of Carbon Engineering for $1.1 billion.

References
  1. Peters, Adele (2015-09-21). "These Enormous Fans Suck CO2 Out Of The Air And Turn It Into Fuel". Fastcoexist.com. Fast Company. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  2. Harris, Richard. "This Machine Can Suck Carbon Out Of The Air". NPR. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  3. Roberts, David (2018-06-14). "Sucking carbon out of the air won't solve climate change". Vox. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  4. Clifford Krauss (April 8, 2019). "Big Oil Bets on Carbon Removal". The New York Times.
  5. Karstens-Smith, Gemma. "Carbon Engineering unveils groundbreaking carbon capture project in Squamish, B.C." CBC News. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  6. Carbon Engineering Ltd. (2022-01-10). "Carbon Engineering Announces Leadership Transition". Archived from the original on 2022-01-13. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  7. Hamilton, Tyler (8 October 2015). "Snatching CO2 back from the air". TheStar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd.
  8. Eisenberg, Anne (2013-01-05). "Pulling Carbon Dioxide Out of Thin Air". New York Times. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  9. Gunther, Marc (7 October 2011). "The business of cooling the planet". FORTUNE. Time Inc.
  10. Silcoff, Sean (21 March 2019). "B.C.'s Carbon Engineering secures $68-million to commercialize CO2-removal technology". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  11. Valle, Sabrina; Bose, Sourasis; Valle, Sabrina (2023-08-15). "Occidental buys carbon air capture tech firm for $1.1 billion". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
  12. SEMENIUK, Ivan. "Could this plant hold the key to generating fuel from CO2 emissions?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  13. "1 Climate Change Technology Company That Could Lead to a Green Future, and It's Not Solar". The Motley Fool. 2015-08-08. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  14. Wenz, John (2015-07-22). "This Giant Wind Wall Sucks Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air". Popular Mechanics. Hearst. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  15. Baker, John. "Market outlook: Out of thin air". ICIS Chemical Business. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  16. "How Carbon Engineering plans to make a fortune out of thin air". Canadian Business. 2016-02-29. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  17. Keith, David W.; et al. (June 7, 2018). "A Process for Capturing CO2 from the Atmosphere". Joule. 2 (8): 1635. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2018.06.010.
  18. Jones, Nicola. "Can Pulling Carbon from Air Make a Difference on Climate?". Yale Environment 360. Yale University. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  19. Rathi, Akshat (July 2019). "A tiny tweak in California law is creating a strange thing: carbon-negative oil". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  20. "Oxy Low Carbon Ventures and Carbon Engineering begin engineering of the world's largest Direct Air Capture and sequestration plant". Carbon Engineering. 2019-05-21. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  21. Carbon Engineering Ltd. (2020-08-19). "Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, Rusheen Capital Management create development company 1PointFive to deploy Carbon Engineering's Direct Air Capture technology". Archived from the original on 2020-08-20. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  22. Gertner, Jon (2021-01-25). "The Dream of Carbon Air Capture Edges Toward Reality". Yale Environment 360. Retrieved 2022-01-12.

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