Technologies for direct sequestration of carbon from air are still very expensive, flawed and not widely used. We have only a few factories in different parts of the world that could be termed experimentation rather than mass full-scale use. While the entire planet produces millions of times more, these are only enough to absorb the emissions of a few power plants.

Where will $1.2 billion go?

The US Department of Energy allocates grants of up to $1.2 billion for the two projects. direct air capture (DAC) followed by the removal of 1 to 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. The agency says this is equivalent to the annual emissions of about 445,000 gas-powered cars. It will also create “4,800 well-paid jobs” in Texas and Louisiana.

These are the first such commercial projects in the US. According to the Department of Energy, each will be able to remove 250 times more CO from the atmosphere.₂than the largest storage facility in the United States today.

Occidental Petroleum subsidiary 1PointFive and partners are building a facility in Texas. The general manager of the company, when the plant is fully operational, It has the potential to remove up to 30 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year..

More interestingly, these two projects are the first to be selected under the Regional Direct Air Capture Centers program funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law. The aim of the program is to mitigate the effects of climate change by developing a nationwide cluster of large-scale carbon sequestration facilities that will work in conjunction with other emission reduction efforts. Therefore, in the future such factories will be built more and more.

The U.S. Department of Energy, with adequate scaling, DAC could help the US meet its 2050 goal of net neutrality. However, for this to happen, it is extremely important to reduce the associated costs quickly. So now the US is trying to reduce the cost of removing a ton of carbon dioxide to less than $100. To do this, scientists are working on 19 different strategies and approaches, but these are all in the early stages.