The climate crisis is here. Just ask the people on the West Coast, Europe, Asia, and probably many more places to come in the future. Ultimately, it’s time for technology to step up to solve climate change. Fast Company reports that CarbonCapture Inc. is setting up a plant in Wyoming, which will run entirely on clean energy. This follows the opening of the first commercial carbon capture removal plant in Iceland last year, which currently captures 4000 tons per year.
Here’s how the carbon capture removal process works: shipping container-sized boxes directly capture CO2 from the atmosphere, which then becomes squeezed into liquid. The liquid gets put into pipelines and stored in underground wells permanently, which are situated hundreds of feet into the ground. They will offer their services to corporations that use up a lot of CO2.
Wyoming was picked due to its “renewable and zero-carbon energy sources as well as the favorable regulatory and operating environment for carbon storage.” The plant could begin storing carbon in late 2023. By 2030, the plant could capture five million tons of atmospheric CO2 per year.
Adrian Corless, the CEO and CTO of CarbonCapture Inc. said the following about the timeline for its full buildout:
“With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the proliferation of companies seeking high-quality carbon removal credits, and a disruptive low-cost technology, we now have the ingredients needed to scale DAC to megaton levels by the end of this decade. We plan to have our first DAC modules fielded by the end of next year and to continue installing capacity as quickly as modules come off our production line. Our goal is to leverage economies of scale to offer the lowest priced DAC-based carbon removal credits in the market.”
I’m frankly pretty stoked about this carbon capture plant. This could make a major difference in air quality, potentially in the relatively nearby Salt Lake City. The only question I have while learning all this is: Will this remote Wyoming plant be able to capture enough CO2 hotspots in North America?
Image/Video Credits: CarbonCapture Inc.
