Direct Air Capture Plants
Commercial DAC hubs scale up contactor fields, regeneration trains, and CO₂ handling systems to capture millions of tonnes annually. Plants in Iceland (Orca/Mammoth), Texas (Stratos), and Kenya pair solid sorbents or liquid solvents with waste heat, renewable power, and on-site compression. Captured CO₂ is mineralized in basalt, injected into saline aquifers, or delivered via pipelines to Class VI wells for permanent storage. Developers integrate water recycling, heat recovery, and automation to cut operating costs.
Corporate buyers—tech, aviation, consumer brands—sign multi-year offtake agreements for high-durability removal credits, often through collectives like Frontier or NextGen. Governments provide tax credits (US 45Q), grants, and Contracts for Difference to underwrite early capacity. DAC hubs co-locate with hydrogen or synthetic-fuel plants to share infrastructure, and oilfield services firms supply drilling, monitoring, and permitting expertise.
Plants are TRL 7 but must overcome high capex/opex, supply-chain bottlenecks for sorbents, and community acceptance. Transparent MRV, environmental monitoring, and workforce development help secure permits. As learning curves drive costs below $300/ton and policy support expands, DAC plants will become a key pillar of hard-to-abate sector mitigation and negative emissions goals.
