Stuff Joe Knows: Direct Air Capture

Joe MacDowell • December 3, 2020

Stuff Joe Knows: Direct Air Capture

Sucking Carbon Out of the Air is a Real Thing!

Direct Air Capture

Have you ever heard of direct air capture (DAC)? I’ll preface this with, I am not a scientist, there is a good chance that I’m missing important details, so go easy on me! More popularly known as carbon capture, it’s the process where giant industrial fans pull air through and extract/separate the carbon from the other particles.

In the article written for Frontiers In Climate , the author states that if we are to successfully meet the goals in the 2015 Paris Agreement, we can’t do it with the reduction of carbon alone. We have to remove some of the existing carbon as well ( Strefler et al., 2018 ). Once it’s separated, the carbon can be safely stored either back in the ground or, what I find even more fascinating, it can be converted into hydrogen fuel… MIND BLOWN.

There are different companies that are at various stages of this technology, but my personal favourite is Carbon Engineering. Based in Squamish British Columbia, Carbon Engineering is building a giant group of fans in the Permian Basin in Texas to scale up this technology.

I know this is hyper nerdy, but I think it is interesting! It’s definitely a positive step in the right direction when tackling climate change.

Thanks for reading!