The first test centre in the world for developing and commercializing technology that removes carbon dioxide directly from the air has opened in Canada.
The innovative initiative brings together leading carbon capture and removal companies here and from around the world. As many as ten different companies that have developed direct air capture (DAC) technologies will be hosted at the site; all working under the same conditions, their carbon capture tools will be evaluated and optimized.
Direct air capture is the process of taking carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, as opposed to other forms of carbon capture, which are often placed at the source of emissions. DAC systems that emphasize low energy operation, high carbon capture rates, and industrial scalability were prioritized and selected for piloting.
Together, the participating partners have just one task: meet humanity’s greatest challenge head-on and reverse climate change.
No pressure there.
Montreal-based carbon removal project developer Deep Sky has now wrapped construction work on the multi-million-dollar carbon removal innovation and commercialization centre in Innisfail, Alberta, about 120 kilometres north of Calgary.
Deep Sky says it’s the first of some 100 large-scale facilities it plans to build, becoming a global pioneer in the emerging – some say existential – market for DAC systems to remove CO₂ from the air we breathe and permanently store it underground (DACSS is direct air capture and sequestration).
Because just reducing carbon emissions is not enough.
Carbon-intensive human activities – our burning of fossil fuels, our deforestation activities, our growing need to power other technological developments – are too intense: we’ve overwhelmed natural mechanisms to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, according to leading climate scientists. We need to clean up tonnes of historic CO₂ emissions as well as immediately reduce new carbon emissions to stop the problem from growing even larger.
That’s why engineered solutions like direct air carbon capture are being developed and deployed.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there are 27 DAC plants operating worldwide, capturing almost 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. To reach net zero emissions by 2050, the IEA estimates DAC capacity must expand to more than 60 million tonnes per year by 2030.
That’s 6,000 new plants, operating at current capacities; at present, about 130 additional facilities are in various stages of development around the world.
And then there’s Deep Sky Alpha, the Alberta-based facility where up to 10 different direct air capture (DAC) technologies can be deployed in one facility. It began operating earlier this year and is projected to capture 3,000 tonnes of CO₂ on an annual basis, targeting 30,000 tonnes during its initial 10-year operating period.
European aerospace giant Airbus has deployed their carbon capture technology at the Alpha site. Airbus image.
DAC systems operating at the site can be powered by solar power and/or efuels, operating in a climate-neutral manner and contributing to sustainable and scalable carbon removal solutions. Site organizers want to demonstrate carbon removal on a small scale before eventually building commercial facilities that can capture up to one million tons of CO₂ annually.
Deep Sky has secured partnerships with multiple international DAC providers to deploy their carbon capture technology at the Alpha site, including European aerospace giant Airbus, U.K.-based tech start-up Mission Zero, German carbon capture company DACMA, as well as tech firms like Airhive, Skytree, Carbon Capture Inc. and GE Vernova.
Interestingly, the Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology developed by Airbus comes from outer space.
Well, it was originally developed as part of the life-support systems aboard the International Space Station.
The modular hardware unit captures carbon dioxide from ambient air, using a solid amine-based filter. The CO2 is then heated and separated, and “lean air” returned to the atmosphere. As part of the temperature swing, the system can recover some input energy to manage energy consumption.
U.K.-based startup Mission Zero, specializing in carbon removal technology, marked its first international expansion at the Deep Sky Alpha site. Mission Zero image.
Mission Zero Technologies, the London, U.K.-based startup specializing in carbon removal technology, has opened its third direct air capture plant overall, marking its first international expansion, at the Deep Sky Alpha site. Mission Zero reports its containerized system can recover up to 250 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year. Sequestered carbon can be “mineralized”, or made into limestone or other building materials.
DACMA’s modular carbon capture systems, already in use in Germany and South America (pictured), are described as “robust against extreme weather conditions”. DACMA image.
And Deep Sky has entered into a long-term development agreement with German firm DACMA, and Alpha will be the site of the first DACMA unit in North America. The unit will have a removal capacity of 600 tonnes of CO₂ per year, with a view to grow deployment to large-scale facilities by 2027. DACMA’s modular systems, already in use in Germany and South America, are described as “robust against extreme weather conditions”.
Launched in 2022, Deep Sky is owned by its co-founders, along with a group of key institutional investors and venture partners; it is not a subsidiary of any other parent company. Actively deploying expansive carbon removal and storage infrastructure across Canada, it is also scaling up its own portfolio of leading carbon dioxide removal and sequestration technologies.
Part of the Alpha site plans are to generate and supply verified carbon removal credits, tradeable certifications generated by projects that avoid, reduce or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Such credits are used by purchasers to offset their company’s carbon emissions, and to help them meet their stated decarbonization commitments.
For example, Deep Sky previously announced founding carbon removal credit buyers Royal Bank of Canada and Microsoft have committed to purchase 10,000 tonnes of CO2 removal each, over a 10-year period.
Deep Sky has also signed agreements with other international carbon removal platforms that sell their credits to their own customers, among them Rubicon Carbon, Terraset, ClimeFi, Ceezer, Patch, Squake and Supercritical. Other customer announcements are expected soon, and the company says it expects to issue its first credits within the next few weeks.
Carbon removal credits produced by Deep Sky projects will be traced from capture to storage with Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) software for tracking and validation purposes. Proprietary Deep Sky software is used to track and benchmark all operational data from the Alpha site to accelerate the R&D of technology partners and the industry at large.
Among its many partners and supporters in that industry at large, Deep Sky Alpha counts the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Catalyst financing tool, from which it received a $40 million (USD) grant, and of course, the Government of Alberta, which is investing $5 million (CDN) in the direct air capture innovation and commercialization centre.
Alberta is where the action is these days, and Deep Sky selected the province for its test facility because of the province’s experience with carbon capture systems, and its existing provincial regulatory system for CO2 sequestration.
What’s more, the Canadian government recently signed a notable – and controversial – agreement with Alberta, linking oil pipelines, carbon capture technologies, government investments and more to the country’s promised “energy transition”.
(Resistance to and criticism of the project has come from members of both the federal and provincial governments, environmentalists, Indigenous leaders and affected First Nations, among others.)
And while the Pathways Alliance federal-provincial partnership does aim to capture carbon, it plans to do so from oil sand production sites in Northern Alberta and ship it via a pipeline to a permanent storage facility further south.
Deep Sky, for its part, is focused on capturing carbon directly out of the atmosphere, eliminating existing, historical emissions and offsetting hard-to-abate emissions, thereby generating carbon removal credits for voluntary markets.
Deep Sky plans to use Canada’s vast reserves of renewable energy to power the removal of gigatonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere by the end of the decade.
Deep Sky Alpha, where up to 10 different direct air capture (DAC) technologies will be deployed in one facility. Deep Sky image.
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