A group of technology developers announced on Thursday that they had submitted a request for funding to the American government for a Louisiana facility that could extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere directly.
To obtain money from last year’s bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act to support the development of the anticipated Project Cypress direct air capture hub along the U.S. Gulf Coast, Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom Carbon submitted their proposal to the Energy Department. There were many incentives for the energy transition in the legislation.
According to Shawn Bennett, division manager for Battelle, “direct air capture technology is an important bridge to a future that greatly reduces the amount of legacy carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Large fans are used in its DAC technology to circulate air through a potassium hydroxide solution. When the solution and CO2 interact, potassium carbonate is created. When heated, a calcium carbonate pellet made from the potassium carbonate releases carbon dioxide.
CO2 can either be sent to end users, like businesses that make carbonated beverages, or it can be stored.
The state of Louisiana is quickly becoming a center for carbon capture and storage technology. A local ammonia facility’s carbon emissions will be reduced by nearly $200 million thanks to plans unveiled by CF Industries, a company that specializes in agricultural fertilizers, in August. The carbon emissions will be captured, cooled to liquid form, and sent to a sequestration site.By the time that project is completed in 2025, the pollution it will have prevented will be the same as removing 700,000 gasoline-powered vehicles from the road.
Battelle and its partners think their facility would be exceptional because it would use renewable energy to power the technology that removes carbon from the air. Captured carbon would be kept underground as opposed to being distributed to final consumers.
