Carbon Engineering (CE) is a Canadian-based clean energy company, founded in 2009, leading the commercialization of groundbreaking technology that captures CO2 directly from the atmosphere, and a second technology that synthesizes it into clean, affordable transportation fuels. Their pilot plant in Squamish, B.C. has been removing CO2 from the atmosphere since 2015 and converting it into fuels since 2017.
This year, they will begin with the commercialization of their carbon dioxide removal technology. The company just concluded (March 21, 2019) a US$68 million private investment round from a group of billionaires. This funding is the largest investment ever made into Direct Air Capture (DAC) – a climate change mitigation technology that captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.
The $68M investment will allow CE to bridge the gap from the pilot demonstration of the company’s DAC and AIR TO FUELS™ technologies, to mainstream market deployment. The funding enables expansion of CE’s pilot plant in Squamish, British Columbia, and the engineering of the first commercial facilities.
The financing and the number of investors onboard highlight the significant commercial interest in DAC. The money will allow the company to commercialize and enter mainstream markets with its fully demonstrated DAC technology that is able to capture and purify atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) for under US$100/tonne.
CE’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Oldham said:
“This financing round – the largest of its kind into a DAC company – shows the growing recognition of both the benefits and commercial readiness of our DAC technology. As the world assesses how to address climate change while keeping economies running with the energy they need, our technology can provide a key part of the solution.
CE’s DAC technology can be deployed to help companies and nations alike meet their climate change commitments and achieve significant emissions reductions, while at the same time creating opportunities for jobs, economic growth, and investment. Our DAC technology has been proven based on extensive testing in our pilot facility, and we’re ready to scale up using existing commercial equipment to deploy reliable and cost-effective facilities. DAC is a viable tool for reducing emissions while continuing to provide affordable energy.”
Helping Address Climate Change
These industrial-scale DAC facilities can capture up to one million tonnes of CO2 from the air each year, which is the equivalent of 40 million trees. It can deliver such large-scale negative emissions because it removes the CO2 from the atmosphere then permanently and safely stores the CO2 underground; while additionally, reducing emissions from transportation by converting the atmospheric CO2 into ultra-low carbon fuels. This is done by integrating the DAC with CE’s AIR TO FUELS™ technology. The fuels produced can power existing cars, trucks and airplanes without any modifications. When the two technologies are used together, the system can create a “closed loop” of carbon emissions, where the carbon that is emitted from the “air to fuels” process is the same carbon that had already been collected.
The Investors
Just to get an idea about how big of a deal this is, here the list of billionaires backing this: Bill Gates, Murray Edwards, BHP, Chevron Technology Ventures, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, Bethel Lands Corporation Ltd, Carbon Order, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Rusheen Capital Management LLC, Starlight Ventures, Thomvest Asset Management (an affiliate of Peter J. Thomson), the Benjamin Family, the Hodgkinson Family, and the Hutchison Family. Last but not least, all of CE’s Board, management and many of CE’s staff have personally invested into the company as part of this round.
