THE GREAT CARBON QUEST

From Iceland’s basalt chambers to Louisiana’s carbon hubs, DAC plants are redefining carbon removal as humanity's most audacious attempt to undo its own emissions

- KRISHNA GUPTA

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.