North American premiere: CO2 certificates from direct air capture for Microsoft

Canada reports the first CO₂-Certificates from North America that were obtained through Direct Air Capture (DAC), i.e. the filtering of CO₂ from the air. This was achieved at a Deep Sky test facility in the province of Alberta. The amount of CO removed from the atmosphere₂ is likely to be modest; Deep Sky does not give a specific number. Microsoft and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC, not to be confused with the state central bank Bank of Canada) bought the certificates in order to mathematically improve their greenhouse gas balance. More certificates are to follow every quarter, and Lufthansa has also ordered some. So far there has been CO₂-Certificates from DAC only from Iceland, where electricity from geothermal energy can be used.

To mitigate the climate crisis, the concentration of greenhouse gases such as CO must be reduced₂ in the air can be reduced. Because more is still being expelled than is being absorbed, many companies are looking for technical solutions. One way is CO₂ from large sources, such as coal-fired power plants. Another approach is direct air capture; This produces CO₂ sucked out of the air at any location. This means that CO can also₂which entered the atmosphere a long time ago, be it from natural processes or through human action. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is an important factor for the climate, regardless of when and how the gases were formed.

The carbon must be bound naturally, for example in new products such as concrete and beer, or in permanent underground storage facilities. Independent auditors then provide CO₂-Certificates (CO₂ credits). Numerous companies expect good business from this, especially since there are subsidies and the AI ​​boom is exploding greenhouse gas emissions from financially powerful data companies.

Multiple methods under the same conditions

The different technical approaches for DAC differ significantly. The Canadian company Deep Sky sees its opportunity in this diversity: It operates a test site called Deep Sky Alpha in the small town of Innisfail in the western Canadian province of Alberta, where prototypes from various DAC developers are stationed. These include Airbus, Airhive, GE Vernova and Mission Zero Technologies. The deep sky partners also include the German companies Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, which is also trying to obtain hydrogen as a byproduct, and Phlair, which is looking for an efficient electrochemical route.

The test site allows different procedures to be compared under the same conditions. The location was not chosen entirely by chance: in Innisfail, in addition to cheap commercial land, there is also solar power to operate the energy-intensive DAC systems. The region also has storage facilities for gas extracted from the air.

Economic risk minimized

For this step, Deep Sky is also relying on diversity. The Canadian company Skyrenu reacts the pumped carbon with mining waste. This means that it is firmly bound in the rock as carbonate. And the Japanese Nikkisō Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group is providing a plant that produces the CO₂ cools so much that the gas becomes liquid. It can then be transported by truck to a deposit where it will remain, two kilometers deep, for thousands of years.

Deep Sky claims to be the first certificate provider to use different technical DAC processes at the same time. This should increase the chance of having experience with the process that proves to be particularly practical for a later large-scale expansion. Investments in DAC are considered risky: regardless of which processes prevail, there is a high level of effort for modest CO₂-Deposition. In addition, the demand for certificates depends not least on political circumstances, which can change in the blink of an eye.

Deep Sky has not disclosed which procedures were used for the first certificates that have now been issued. In addition to its initial customers Microsoft and RBC, Deep Sky has also signed contracts with Lufthansa, the Canadian bank TD (Toronto Dominion) and the French energy company Engie. Deep Sky is planning a larger DAC site in the central Canadian province of Manitoba.

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