Direct Air Capture of CO2: The Most Dangerous Idea in the World

By Dave Austgen, CEO, BioVeritas

It may not be the stupidest idea ever postulated, but it is unequivocally one of the most dangerous. Direct Air Capture or DAC!

To the average person it sounds like a fantastic solution to climate change driven by the increasing stock of CO2 in the atmosphere – let’s just take the CO2 we produce directly out of air by developing new (miracle) technology. This is why oil and gas companies are investing in DAC – it suggests that a breakthrough solution has been found, one that seems very logical and involves the least amount of pain. They know most people will welcome the concept but will not understand its limitations.

It is green-washing at its very worst. Many of the oil and gas companies are using DAC to maintain their societal licenses to operate. That is to say, they are doing so hoping the promise of DAC will allow them to continue to produce high levels of oil and gas over the next 30 years, levels that exceed reasonable reduction targets. 

Engineers and scientists, schooled in thermodynamics and techno-economics, recognize DAC for what it is – a ridiculous concept, by far the most expensive way of capturing CO2, virtually an impossible technology to implement at a scale that would make even the smallest dent in the stock of CO2 in the atmosphere much less capture all the new CO2 entering the atmosphere. From an economic perspective, it is the most inefficient investment in CO2 abatement.

But the oil and gas companies do not need to invest significant sums to keep their licenses to operate. They just need to sell the Promise they can remove CO2 directly from the air.

They are saying to us, metaphorically, “Don’t Look Up.” 

We are far better off, from a societal perspective, planting trees than investing in DAC. And to reduce emissions in the short term, we should continue to deploy solar, which has become the cheapest source of power in many parts of the world, and continue to shut down coal power plants, which are the biggest emitters of CO2. This is far and away the cheapest way of reducing CO2 emissions.

Many oil companies started investing in renewable energy in the 2000’s and 2010’s. Now many are moving away from those investments and back to their core businesses (just do a google search on direct air capture – O&G company after company are investing in projects).

Those of us in the engineering and science communities have a responsibility to speak out against DAC. The concept inarguably represents an existential threat to the world by allowing oil and gas companies to continue producing at current levels rather than reducing production to levels needed to prevent a climate catastrophe.