World’s largest carbon capture plant to suck CO2 99,000x faster than seas

The world’s largest carbon direct removal (CDR) plant, which can remove over 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide yearly, is being built in Quebec, Canada. Equatic is building the facility to amplify the way oceans work as carbon sinks and help reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Oceans are some of the biggest absorbers of human-emitted carbon, removing up to 25 percent of the carbon emitted yearly. Studies have shown that if replicated, these processes could help remove billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere.

This could be a crucial tool in mitigating climate change since reducing greenhouse gases is not enough to stop the planet from warming further. We need active means of carbon removal, and Equatic’s technology is the first commercial-scale deployment of CDR anywhere in the world.

How does the technology work?

The company has already demonstrated its technology at two pilot plants, one in Los Angeles and the other in Singapore.

Equatic’s approach for CDR involves running an electric current through seawater. This splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen, creating an acid and a base as a byproduct. Carbon is stored in the water in its solid form. The alkaline slurry created in the process is also used to absorb more carbon from the atmosphere using a cooling tower.

An added advantage of the process is the creation of hydrogen, which can be sold separately or used by the facility to power its operations.

Equatic is currently building a larger plant in Singapore that can handle 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and is expected to go online later this year. The facility will help Equatic build its commercial-scale project in Quebec, which aims to process 109,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide and generate 3,600 tonnes of green hydrogen annually.

This can be achieved with a net energy requirement of less than 1.4 MW per tonne of CO2 removed, the company says on its website .

Impact of large-scale carbon removal

Studies have estimated that removing one ton of CO2 from the atmosphere can cost between US$230 and US$540 in 2050. Since Equatic’s technology also allows it to make gains by selling hydrogen, the company estimates it could achieve carbon removal for US$100 per ton by the decade’s end.

Equatic believes that, at a lower cost and with a scalable solution, we will soon be talking about millions of tonnes of carbon removal from the atmosphere every year. This hasn’t been attempted before, and researchers are concerned about its impact.

Besides the sudden removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, large-scale removal techniques will also impact ocean life. The technology used for CDR manipulates seawater. It involves pulling in large amounts of water with active sea creatures.

Equatic told Business Insider that its Singapore plant will feature a seawater filter to remove all sea life before it enters the facility. The company also plans to follow stringent international standards to measure its carbon removal.