A Squamish-based company that's been hailed internationally as an environmental game-changer is doubling the capacity of a major project's design.
Carbon Engineering says a proposed direct air capture plant, when built, will be able to remove one million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere and permanently store it underground.
The planned facility is being engineered in partnership with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of Occidental.
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a renowned fossil fuel company in the United States.
The plant would be located in the Permian Basin, which is roughly around western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
"This expansion will enable customers to permanently and safely remove atmospheric CO2 as part of their emissions management and reduction plans," the company said in a news release.
Previously, this plant was intended to remove 500,000 tons of CO2. In May, Carbon Engineering announced the carbon this facility takes from the air would be used in Occidental's enhanced oil recovery operations and later stored underground permanently.
"Over the last few years we have observed a growing consensus in the science and policy sectors that both aggressive emissions reductions and large-scale removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is essential," said Steve Oldham, CEO of Carbon Engineering, in a news release.
"We are now seeing this consensus building in the private sector. Corporations are publicly committing to reduce their environmental footprints, and many are finding that while some of their emissions can be directly cut or reduced from within their activities, others are far more challenging. For these hard-to-eliminate emissions, the ability to remove an equivalent quantity of CO2 directly from the atmosphere is a powerful new tool to include in their sustainability toolkits."
Enhanced oil recovery involves injecting substances into an existing oil well to increase pressure. This allows more oil to be extracted.
