DOE awards $12M for six direct air capture CO2 removal technology efforts

Published on June 17, 2021 by Chris Galford

A total of six CO2 removal research and development projects focused on advancing direct air capture (DAC) technology were chosen this week to receive $12 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The concept behind DAC is the capability to remove CO2 emissions directly from the atmosphere as a means of going green. While DAC already exists, these projects — undertaken by universities and labs in Arizona, North Carolina, Illinois, and Kansas — seek to decrease the associated costs and improve the energy efficiency of the whole operation. 

Traditionally, such efforts are costly and energy intensive. In turn, this reduces the viability of such projects. Efforts are also being sought to make their carbon removal process carbon-negative. 

“Across the U.S., in states like Arizona and North Carolina, brilliant innovators are developing Direct Air Capture technologies that can extract carbon dioxide straight out of the air,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “These DOE investments, and the ones we will make with President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, are crucial to advancing technology that will help us avoid the worst effects of climate change and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”   

Recipients include:

1. Cormetech, Inc. — $1.5 million. Cormetech plans to create a DAC contactor for processing and capturing air and CO2 to maximize the amount of CO2 captured from the atmosphere and reduce the amount of energy needed for operation.
2. Research Triangle Institute — $1.5 million. RTI intends to design, fabricate and test an early-stage DAC contactor powered by wind energy.
3. Susteon Inc. — $1.5 million. A project housed at Susteon will reduce the cost of DAC operations by creating a structured, regenerative material capable of capturing and containing high amounts of CO2. 
4. Black & Veatch Corporation — $2.5 million. The company will design a DAC system for use across three states to capture 100,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.
5. Silicon Kingdom Holdings Limited — $2.5 million. The Irish company will create three initial designs for a commercial-scale, passive DAC system for absorbing CO2. Developed at the University of Arizona. The designs will aim to capture 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per day.
6. University of Illinois — about $2.5 million. A team will develop preliminary designs for large-scale direct air capture, working with partners to enhance designs for permanent storage of CO2 at underground facilities in Wyoming, Louisiana, and California. At the same time, researchers will measure the impact of using different low-carbon power sources for DAC technology. 

Currently, no DAC system is capable of capturing 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. These projects will be managed by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.