The same notice of intent also revealed upcoming funding opportunities for additional approaches to carbon removal, including those that rely on biomass, minerals and the oceans to capture the greenhouse gas.

In effect, the federal government is helping to support the buildout of the direct-air capture industry and acting as a customer for it, both of which will be crucial for developing the sector, says Sasha Stashwick, director of policy at Carbon180.

“It’s just a massive opportunity to define what successful carbon removal projects look like, and really generate the momentum that we know we need,” she says.

The Hubs

Other, earlier stage projects that received up to $3 million under the Department of Energy’s direct-air capture hubs program included: a General Electric research effort to evaluate the feasibility of a project in the greater Houston area; a Northwestern University initiative to use nuclear power to support carbon removal in the Midwest; and a Fervo Energy proposal to establish direct-air capture facilities in southwestern Utah powered through geothermal energy.

Battelle, an Ohio-based nonprofit research and development company, will oversee the development of the major direct-air hub in Louisiana. Switzerland-based Climeworks and California-based Heirloom, which have taken different technical approaches to carbon removal, will act as technology providers for the project.

Occidental will work with  Squamish, British Columbia-based Carbon Engineering, one of the first carbon removal businesses, to develop a hub in Texas. The companies have already begun developing a separate carbon removal project in the oil-rich Permian Basin in Texas, which will use the greenhouse gas to help free up more fossil fuels from existing wells, a controversial practice known as enhanced oil recovery. 

Environmental groups have criticized this use, noting that pulling down carbon dioxide only to release more fossil fuel slows progress on climate change and sustains oil and gas companies. They also fear that the DAC hubs can harm communities and the environment, if the wells leak or the associated infrastructure also supports carbon capture projects that extend the life of fossil fuel power plants. Such facilities, which continue to emit other pollutants, are often located near, poor marginalized communities.

After the plan to create direct-air capture hubs was announced last year, the Climate Justice Alliance called the program a “​​dangerous gamble that puts frontline communities at further risk.”