Biden Administration To Invest $1.2 Billion in Carbon Removal Technology As Solution to the Effects of Climate Change

The Biden administration announced its first major investment to kickstart the direct air capture (DAC) technology which is believed to help control the country's carbon emissions. On August 11, the Department of Energy (DOE) revealed that up to $1.2 billion will be spent to develop commercial-scale DAC facilities in Texas and Louisiana.

First-of-Its-Kind Project

These projects represent the initial selections from the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program, which aims to promote a nationwide network of large-scale carbon removal sites in the country. It also seeks to address carbon dioxide pollution and initiate emissions reductions. Since these emissions are already present in the atmosphere, they trigger climate change and extreme weather patterns that can harm public health and ecosystems across the planet.

The Hubs are expected to encourage community and labor engagement while contributing to the President's Justice40 Initiative. Together, the projects are anticipated to remove over 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 445,000 gasoline-powered cars.

According to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the South Texas Direct Air Capture hub facilities and Project Cypress in Louisiana will connect the capture, processing, and deep underground storage phases in one seamless process.

Trees, oceans, and bogs naturally do the carbon removal process, but it is not happening at a rate fast enough to capture the fossil fuel emissions released by humans. Through these projects, machines are built to supercharge carbon removal. As White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu describes, this will be the first direct air capture project at this scale in the country and will also be the largest in the world.

Officials from the Department of Energy have not clarified what the hubs will do with the carbon once it is extracted. They only explained that neither hub would use the captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery, a process where carbon is brought to the ground to release more fossil fuel.

An independent nonprofit environmental organization Carbon180 promotes the advocacy of storing carbon underground safely and permanently or being used in making materials like cement. According to the firm's policy director Sasha Stashwick, the proper disposal of carbon must be followed because it will be critical for public acceptance. Since these projects will debut the DAC industry in the US, they will also be the first introduction to technological carbon removal.

What is Direct Air Capture Technology?

Direct air capture technology refers to extracting carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere at any location, unlike carbon capture, which is conducted at the point of emissions, like a steel plant.

In this technology, chemical reactions pull carbon dioxide out of the air. As air moves over these chemicals, they exclusively react with carbon dioxide, trapping this greenhouse gas and allowing other air components to pass through.

Once carbon dioxide is captured from the atmosphere, heat is applied to release it from the solvent. The charged gas can be permanently stored in deep geological formations or be used in different applications.