A facility under construction in West Texas aims to be the world's largest direct air carbon capture plant, though experts remain divided on the technology's viability and environmental impact.
Houston-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) is spearheading the STRATOS project, a $1 billion venture designed to remove 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually once commercially operational in mid-2025.
The project, spanning 65 acres in Ector County, will feature an extensive network of pipes, buildings and fans designed to scrub CO2 from the air and store it underground in geological features.
The project has gained significant backing, including tax credits from the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act and support from major tech companies. Microsoft has already committed to purchasing 500,000 metric tons' worth of carbon credits from the facility, demonstrating growing corporate interest in carbon removal technologies.
"Stratos, as a project, will have a lot of eyes on it, because it really is that first large-scale, commercial scale, direct air capture project," Mhairidh Evans, who leads Wood Mackenzie's research on the emerging carbon capture industry, told the Houston Chronicle. "It's one of those technologies that people are watching because of the promise."
But significant challenges and concerns surround the project's feasibility and environmental impact. The process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is highly energy intensive because of its low atmospheric concentration—just 0.04 percent.
"I think we think that director capture can ultimately get to a spot where it uses less energy, probably not a nominal amount, but ideally will use less," Kajsa Hendrikson, a director of policy at climate NGO Carbon180, told Newsweek.
"We do think more innovation and more competition will help drive down the energy costs, but that it should only be fueled by cleaner energy sources."
Energy intensity is not just concerning because of its environmental impact but its economic ones too. As if a $1 billion price tag to build a facility like STRATOS wasn't enough, running it will be costly, which can price smaller players out of the market.
"That's why only a relatively small handful of players are actually developing out these projects," Evans said.
Safety and storage concerns also loom large. Recent incidents have highlighted potential risks: In September, a carbon capture well in Illinois experienced sequestration fluid migration to an unauthorized underground zone, prompting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step in.
West Texas' history of earthquakes and saltwater blowouts related to oil field wastewater injection raises additional questions about the long-term stability of underground carbon dioxide storage.
"As far as we understand, seismic activity is unlikely to be an issue," Hendrikson said. "However, that should be part of the review process and we're working on a series of policy recommendations next year around what we think carbon removal and sequestration should integrate beyond what the EPA requires."
Hendrikson said that DAC is an important tool in the toolkit for combating the climate crisis, but that the key is to use it to remove historical emissions and not to increase fossil fuel extraction, as is the case with many carbon storage wells.
Ultimately, she thinks the technology should move away from propping up high-emission industries that wish to offset emissions too, as is the case with STRATOS, but that this is required for now to make projects economically viable.
Newsweek contacted Occidental Petroleum via email for comment.
In the end, Hendrikson said, the STRATOS project is a gamble, but one worth taking.
"If you told somebody 20 years ago that that was what solar was going to look like today, what wind was going to look like, a lot of people also thought those were insane," she said.
"It's a healthy amount of skepticism to have until we see things get deployed. But I also don't think that skepticism should keep us from pursuing technology that can help resolve climate issues."
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