To meet global climate goals, many scientists say we need to accelerate the transition away from burning fossil fuels – and remove some of the carbon pollution that’s already in the air.
“We are developing machines that can basically pull CO2 back out of the atmosphere,” says Adrian Corless with CarbonCapture. “So it’s negative emission technology.”
CarbonCapture has developed technology to remove carbon from the air and is partnering to build a large facility in Wyoming.
It will be composed of modular units the size of shipping containers. Each unit will use large fans to suck in air, then extract the CO2 using chemical processes.
“In pure form then it’s compressed … as part of the process, then, to inject it basically into deep geological formations where it’ll be permanently sequestered underground,” Corless says.
Called Project Bison, the system is one of several direct air carbon capture projects being developed in the United States.
Corless says some large businesses have already committed to purchasing carbon removal credits from these projects to offset their companies’ climate pollution.
So he says that as the need to limit climate change grows more urgent, direct air capture could become an important tool in the toolbox.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media