By Ophelia Lee
Carbon capture has been on the rise as a new method to combat the climate crisis. Major companies like ExxonMobile and Occidental Petroleum are vying to be the first to implement this technology on a large scale. While this growing industry is fueled by the fear of climate change, it’s also incentivised by the potential profits within these carbon capture technologies.
Each year, over thirty-six billion tonnes of carbon are emitted, contributing to the greenhouse effect, and, in turn, increases in extreme weather which destroys ecosystems and displaced millions of people each year. To prevent irreversible damage, the United Nations projects that carbon emissions must be reduced by forty-five percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. Climate change can be slowed through restricting the emissions from major polluters and switching to sustainable energy. However, these are temporary solutions that only reduce further emissions, and do nothing to reverse the existing damage. Carbon capture technologies must be utilized alongside existing methods of carbon reduction to bring emissions back to net zero.
The main contender in the carbon capture industry is Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), a petroleum manufacturing company that’s also at the forefront of carbon management. Fossil fuel emissions are the main culprits behind climate change and companies like Oxy make up the oil and gas industry that’s responsible for roughly fifteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In an effort to neutralize their impact, Oxy began the development of a carbon capture plant in Texas’s Permian Basin named Stratos which is set to open late 2024.
Stratos employs direct air capture, a form of carbon capture that involves drawing in air through a large fan that passes it through a solution of potassium hydroxide. The carbon reacts to form carbonate salt pellets within the potassium hydroxide solution. The rest of the air is then released and the pellets are heated in a calcinator to produce carbon gas for storage.
Among other uses, captured carbon can be used to manufacture urea for fertilizer, create synthetic CO2-based fuels, and enhance oil recovery through pumping CO2 into oil reservoirs. Carbon can also be used to carbonize drinks, but to actually remove the carbon from the air, it must be compressed into a liquid form and stored permanently in formations deep underground such as depleted oil reservoirs.
While potential profit and risks of carbon capture are unclear, Oxy has shown strong commitment to the cause. Occidental recently acquired their partner, Carbon Engineering, for 1.1 billion dollars. Carbon Engineering was previously the leader in direct air capture, and now works alongside Oxy in the quest to construct Stratos. Oxy’s goal for Stratos is to remove 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year, still a small portion of the projected 980 megatons that needs to be captured per year.
Other companies are keeping a close eye on the movements in the carbon capture industry. Once the technology advances to be both large scale and cost efficient, corporations like ExxonMobil plan to capitalize on the opportunity to stop climate change.
