Canadian clean energy company Carbon Engineering Ltd. has obtained investment from two global energy firms to accelerate the commercialization of its 'Direct Air Capture' technology that removes carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air, the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Since its foundation in 2009, Carbon Engineering has been developing Direct Air Capture technology, and from 2015 onwards has captured CO2 from the atmosphere at a pilot plant in British Columbia, Canada.
The firm said its Direct Air Capture plants are independent of a specific location, allowing the plants to be in situ in oil fields for enhanced oil recovery.
The amount of the investment made by Chevron Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of U.S. energy giant Chevron Corporation, and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation, was undisclosed.
'With an increasing focus worldwide on the need for aggressive emissions reductions, Carbon Engineering's technology can play a major role, and energy industry leaders like Occidental and Chevron will greatly accelerate commercialization of Carbon Engineering’s technology,' CEO Steve Oldham said in a statement.
Richard Jackson, Occidental Petroleum’s senior vice president and operations support, said 'Carbon Engineering’s direct air capture technology has the unique capability to capture and provide large volumes of atmospheric CO2.'
Occidental Petroleum is using CO2 to enable low-cost enhanced oil recovery, which can increase oil recovery by 10 to 20 percent in the fields where it is employed, according to the statement.
'Using atmospheric CO2 for oil recovery in this way greatly reduces the net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere from oil production and fuel use,' it added.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr