Recently, President Biden signed an executive order allocating $1.2 billion to two facilities to remove carbon from the air, but they still have to wait until they are operational. Fortunately, private companies are not far behind; The first commercial project has already opened.

What is known

In a press release, Heirloom Carbon Technologies announced that its recently opened direct air capture facility near San Francisco can remove CO .₂ It is removed from the atmosphere and stored securely underground in concrete vaults. This approach also allows the collected carbon to be reused in the production of certain products, but the company does not specify whether it plans to sell the material to anyone.

It is worth noting that many modern carbon capture and storage facilities are engaged in collecting carbon dioxide from specific productions or technological processes at a particular facility. Instead, Heirloom Carbon Technologies’ approach is slightly different; The company absorbs carbon from the air without any other parallel industrial processes.

As journalists note, the company’s first plant is quite small and cannot absorb large amounts of carbon – only 1,000 tonnes of CO so far₂ Once a year, although this is already a definite step forward considering the technology started with just one kilogram. CEO and co-founder Shashank Samala says the board wants to reach one million tonnes per year, but it is unclear whether this will require building new facilities or improving existing ones.

A little criticism

Heirloom will sell so-called “carbon credits.” These are a type of allowance for additional emissions that companies must pay for environmental initiatives. For this purpose, for example, Apple plants forests in volumes that will absorb a certain amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the company.

This approach has been heavily criticized by environmental activists because manufacturers do not actually reduce emissions this way. They just get a “license to pollute” and continue to emit thousands, millions of tons of greenhouse gases with a clear conscience.