US Unveils Blueprint for Major Air Carbon Capture Facilities

The US Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that it will invest $1.2 billion in two innovative facilities which will be a major air carbon capture facilities, one in Texas and the other in Louisiana, that will use direct air capture (DAC) technology to annually remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. 

The awards, which are a controversial attempt to address global warming, are the first stage of the $3.5 billion in funding for DAC centers set aside by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of last year. They also represent the first significant governmental support in the history of the developing carbon capture technology.

Over the following ten years, the program seeks to build four DAC hubs, each of which will be able to capture and store at least 1 million tons of CO2 annually. Officials from the DOE also unveiled financing for an additional 19 conceptual and engineering studies of possible DAC facilities as part of the program’s launch.

However, there are many opponents of the tactic as well. According to Jacobson, a better climate approach would be to simply spend the money on accelerating the development of renewable energy so that coal and natural gas electrical plants may be shut down more quickly.

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Carbon Emission Challenge: Current vs. Required Reduction

DAC supporters disagree, arguing that despite the fact that the world spends more than $1 trillion a year on clean energy technologies, it won’t be enough for nations to achieve their carbon reduction targets. 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order for nations to have a chance of limiting global warming to the target 1.5°C rise above pre industrial levels by 2030, DAC and other so-called negative emissions technologies will need to sequester about 1 billion tons of carbon annually. 

The annual amount could increase to 20 GT by 2050. Currently, about 38 GT of CO2 are released into the atmosphere each year by human activity.

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Source: www.science.org