DAC Factory: A big bet for a CO2-free future

To cool the Earth, from now until 2050, humanity needs to filter 10 billion tons of CO2 out of the air on average each year.

Factory DAC. After 2050, we still have to double our efficiency. Currently, the fastest and most powerful solution is CO2 extraction by DAC method. For one thing, it takes 30,000 large-capacity DAC (Direct Air Capture) plants, estimated to cost $ 15,000 billion. Direct CO2 filter Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, the world has made many efforts to reduce CO2. The most popular solution is afforestation, but this way of “green” still has many potential risks. First, afforestation takes space and time. It requires a large investment, likely to push food prices five times higher. Second, even when the Earth is completely green, forests will only absorb 30% of the annual emissions that need to be treated. Third, the plant itself is the “receptor for CO2”. If not handled properly upon death, they will turn out to be harmful to humans. “Humanity needs a faster, more drastic solution”, Steve Oldham (USA) affirmed. He introduced the initiative of Carbon Engineering Company: DAC Factory, removed CO2 by the method of direct air capture (DAC). The DAC method was invented in 1999. It operates on the principle of absorbing air, leading to an alkaline environment, isolating and compressing to preserve CO2. The experimental DAC plant was built in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. It is installed with a series of giant fan tubes on the roof, sucking in ambient air. Currently, CO2 makes up about 0.04% of the air. Carbon Engineering fan duct connected to a filtration system consists of 3 chambers. The first chamber contains alkali potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution. When the air passes through, the KOH reacts with CO2, forming potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3). The KHCO3 formed is led to a second chamber containing calcium hydroxide (Ca (OH) ₂). It reacts, forming limestone and being expelled into the third chamber. In the third chamber, the heated limestone decomposes, creating pure CO2. The DAC recycles the catalyst residue, forming a closed and repeating loop. It captures CO2 without releasing waste. “We are miserable with climate change and the cause of it is excess CO2” – Oldham said – “But with the DAC plant, you can purify this emissions anywhere and anywhere. when”. Cost “huge” CO2 can be commercialized by selling it to agriculture. The world is emitting about 36 billion tons of CO2 / year. “To avoid the risk of global warming, we need to successfully remove 10 billion tons of CO2 / year”, ecologist Jane Zelikova (Ukraine) said. To remove 10 billion tons of CO2 / year, a widespread DAC system is needed, with a total of 30,000 factories. Each year, these three thousand plants require 4 million tons of KOH. They also need a huge amount of energy to operate, estimated to account for up to one-sixth of total global energy. The cost of building a DAC factory is 500 million USD. With 30,000 factories, mankind has to spend 15,000 billion USD. “We need to filter 800 billion tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere,” Oldham said. Recently, many philanthropists and large corporations have expressed their support for DAC. Billionaire and philanthropist Elon Musk (South African American) pledges $ 100 million to develop CO2 capture technology by this method. Microsoft, United Airlines, ExxonMobil … also enthusiastically invested billions of dollars. Until now, estimates of the cost of capturing CO2 in the air have been very expensive. It ranges from 100 to 1,000 USD / ton. Oldham believes that the DAC industry will help lower it to only 94 USD / ton. Big bet Mankind sees CO2 as an enemy, wanting to be wiped out from the atmosphere. Did you know that in the business sector, compressed CO2 is still a valuable commodity? In Switzerland, Climeworks (a CO2 capture center) is compressing CO2 with an efficiency of 900 tons / year. They sell it to greenhouses that increase crop yields. Unfortunately, the most potential customer of compressed CO2 is the fossil fuel industry – the most terrible CO2 emission sector. Petroleum is a finite source of energy, but can be renewable by adding CO2. Occidental Petroleum Company in Texas signed a contract with Carbon Engineering to build a large-scale DAC plant. They aim to filter and utilize 50 million tons of CO2 / year, used for the purpose of increasing oil regeneration. Naturally, this amount of CO2 will be re-emitted in the new oil. It makes efforts to remove CO2 “evenly”. “We must admit, DAC is an expensive solution”, businessman and writer Chris Goodall (UK) said. The problem is that humanity urgently needs to deal with its excess CO2. If we are late, we could pay a heavy price. Losses caused by natural disasters from climate change are extremely severe. It is even able to exceed the amount of money spent operating DACs by many times. The more you hesitate and delay, the more CO2 increase cannot be controlled. The role of DAC is to control emissions. For tomorrow, mankind may have to accept today’s costly. In the event of failure to do business, Iceland proposes mineralization. They succeeded by mixing CO2 into water, pumping down basalt layers in the ground 500 – 600m deep. After about 2 years, CO2 self-changes into calcite (limestone). Waiting time for mineralization, CO2 mixed in water. CO2 containing water is heavier than normal, sinks deeply, so it does not affect the quality of floating water. In other words, the mineralization of CO2 ensures ecological safety.