Japanese Firm Eyes Carbon Capture Innovation to Fight Climate Change

It pivots from car exhaust systems to extract greenhouse gas from the air

- Walter Sim

NAGOYA - As the world accelerates away from petrol vehicles, the global leader in ceramic components for catalytic converters in car exhaust systems is also making a significant pivot.

Nagoya-based NGK Insulators believes its patented technology - a honeycomb structure that is coated with the catalyst that neutralises toxic pollutants in vehicle exhaust - can be adapted to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere.

This process, known as direct air capture (DAC), has been lauded as a promising method to extract the greenhouse gas from the air to fight global warming.

Its function has been likened to that of a natural forest.

DAC technology captures CO2 from ambient air, rather than at points of emission like factories and power plants, where the gas is typically separated from flue gases using chemical solvents and then reused commercially.

Greenhouse gases, chiefly CO2 from burning fossil fuels and deforestation, are heating up the planet and driving more extreme weather, such as heatwaves and more powerful storms.

Technologies that can remove CO2 from the air are attracting growing investor interest, but high costs remain an impediment.

This challenge stems from the low concentration of CO2 in the air, at merely 0.04 per cent, thus requiring significant energy to channel air towards DAC facilities for efficient capture, explained Dr Hidetaka Yamada of Kanazawa University's Frontier Science and Social Co-creation Initiative.

"Simply put, it takes extreme effort to collect something that is comparatively rare," he said, noting that it can cost up to US$1,000 (S$1,280) to capture one tonne of CO2. The industry target is to lower this price to US$100.