The U.S. DOE (Department of Energy) has recently announced federal funding worth $12 million for six R&D projects. These projects are expected to advance the DAC (direct air capture) technology, which is a CO2 removal approach.
Housed at labs and universities in Arizona, Kansas, Illinois, and North Carolina, the projects will create tools to enhance the energy efficiency of carbon removal operations, lower material costs, and increase the rate of CO2 captured by the DAC technology. In addition, the deployment of this next-gen clean energy technology will help reach the net-zero emissions target set by Biden-Harris Administration by 2050.
The Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management of the DOE and the NETL (National Energy Technology Laboratory) will significantly manage the following six projects:
- Increase the amount of carbon dioxide captured in DAC operations – Cormetech, Inc. is planning to form a DAC contractor and reduce the level of energy needed to operate.
- Initiate early-stage DAC system testing powered by low-cost wind energy – The team at Research Triangle Institute will design, test, and fabricate an early-stage DAC contactor.
- Form high-capacity regenerative materials – Susteon Inc. will lower the cost of DAC operations through the development of structure material that is regenerative and can capture and contain more CO2
- Implement early-stage engineering designs – The team at Black & Veatch Corporation will develop the initial design of a DAC system to capture over 100,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere in a year
- Execute initial design of 3 carbon farms – Silicon Kingdom Holdings will implement the initial designs using a passive, commercial-scale DAC system to capture 1,000 tons of CO2 in a day
- Utilize low-carbon energy sources – The team at the University of Illinois will form preliminary designs and work with partners to permanently store CO2 at the underground facilities in California, Louisiana, and Wyoming. Moreover, the project will measure the impacts of deploying other low-carbon power sources to curb life-cycle emissions of the technology
Source credit:
https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-announces-12-million-direct-air-capture-technology