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There are no large-scale direct air capture systems in the United States

Currently, there are no large-scale direct air capture (DAC) systems operational in the United States. The only operating commercial DAC plant in the United States is owned by the company Heirloom Carbon Technologies and operates in Tracy, California.1 The Heirloom project is expected to capture around 1,000 tons of CO2 a year once it is fully operational.2 In the Summer of 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy invested around $1.2 billion in two new carbon capture facilities that each aim to capture over 1 million tons of CO2 annually.3 However, it is unclear at this time when these plants will be operational. While several other pilot projects and smaller-scale operations are underway across the world, the technology has yet to be deployed on a scale sufficient to make a significant impact on atmospheric CO2 levels.

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Footnotes​

  1. Plumer, B. (2023, November 9). In a U.S. First, a Commercial Plant Starts Pulling Carbon From the Air. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/climate/direct-air-capture-carbon.html ↩

  2. National Public Radio (NPR). (2023, November 29). A look at the first commercial direct air carbon capture plant in the U.S. National Public Radio (NPR). https://www.npr.org/2023/11/29/1215914495/a-look-at-the-first-commercial-direct-air-carbon-capture-plant-in-the-u-s ↩

  3. Service, R. F. (2023, August 11). U.S. unveils plans for large facilities to capture carbon directly from air. Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/us-unveils-plans-for-large-facilities-to-capture-carbon-directly-from-air ↩