 Sucking CO2 right out of the air could help a range of sectors  reach ‘net zero’ and even reverse climate change ….

 … but to avoid being considered as just a wildcard option,  questions around its cost and scalability need answering   First signs of a Direct Air Capture business model emerge;  but has it joined the party a bit too late, or just in time?

What is Direct Air Capture (DAC) and why talk about it? DAC is a set of industrialscale fans that pull CO2 from the atmosphere to either be used or stored. Often referred to  as ‘mechanical trees’ or a ‘vacuum cleaner for the atmosphere’, it is a form of carbon  dioxide removal (CDR) that can tackle unavoidable emissions – it is the ‘net’ in ‘net zero’. 

Plenty of pros, but also no shortage of cons. DAC is location independent, is less land  intense than planting trees and can, somewhat uniquely, remove historical emissions. 

Unlike other carbon ‘offsets’ it boasts actual carbon removal and permanence of  sequestration. But, it needs both a lot of energy to run and somewhere to place or use  captured CO2; today it is done at a tiny scale and can be eye-wateringly expensive at over  USD500/t CO2 in many cases, equating to >7x EU carbon price (Reuters, 14 September).

Industry confidence has never been higher … Despite being in its infancy, optimism  around the technology is rapidly rising; the industry has plans to break through cost and  scale thresholds this decade to show that direct air capture has ‘arrived’. 

… but the task is arguably more challenging than ever. Debate rages over if DAC can  get sufficiently big and cheap in order make a meaningful impact on global emissions;  and whether there will be demand for it. Questions that cannot yet be answered.