Carbon Capture and Storage

Elon Musk to Award USD $100 Million in a Carbon Capture Competition

Elon Musk to Award USD $100 Million in a Carbon Capture Competition
03
Jun

Using technology to solve environmental issues epitomises billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. By developing electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products, the world’s richest man has helped accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.1 He intends to use half of his USD $168.6 billion fortune “to help problems on Earth and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars”.2 As part of the former, Elon Musk wants carbon capture to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. 

As a result, he is offering USD $100 million to anyone who can demonstrate functioning direct air capture (DAC) technology. The XPRIZE competition’s main prize goes to the design that can remove at least 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. To win it, the team must also show a pathway to capturing one billion tonnes of CO2 in the future. Any solution that achieves net negative emissions, sequesters CO2 durably, and has a clear, low-cost path to achieving gigatonne scale is eligible.3

Why Elon Musk wants carbon capture technologies to flourish

High atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are the leading long-term driver of global warming. This greenhouse gas traps heat and prevents it from escaping into space. This increases the average temperature of the Earth. By burning fossil fuels, destroying forests and converting land for agriculture, humans have increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 47 per cent.4 Subsequently, we have caused 1°C of global warming since the Industrial Revolution.5

The most impactful way to prevent climate change is to stop burning fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas cause as much as 89 per cent of global CO2 emissions.6 However, even if we were to transition to renewable energy today, CO2 can remain in the atmosphere for up to 1,000 years.7 That is why Elon Musk wants these technologies to flourish and make a measurable impact. 

Who are the bigger contenders so far in Elon Musks’ carbon capture competition?

The competition only opened on 22 April 2021.8 But, three companies worldwide already have pilot plants capturing large quantities of CO2 directly from the air.9 They could theoretically apply to the competition, and it would be worth their while to do so. The Grand Prize Winner will receive USD $50 million. USD $30 million will also be distributed among the three runners up.10

Carbon Engineering

Canada’s Carbon Engineering has been operating DAC facilities since 2015. It focuses on the “global deployment of megaton-scale Direct Air Capture technology”. It is also trying to construct DAC facilities that can capture almost one million tonnes of CO2 per year. That is equivalent to the CO2 that 40 million trees absorb through photosynthesis.11

Carbon Engineering is building its commercial-scale DAC facility in Texas. It is already selling units equivalent to amounts of CO2 captured. For instance, the e-commerce platform Shopify has bought 10,000 carbon removal units from Carbon Engineering. Shopify hopes to offset its emissions with this move.12 

But if Shopify fails to reduce its emissions in any other way, it negates the environmental benefit of Carbon Engineering’s DAC. The DAC facility will not start operating until 2024.13 It is dangerous for companies and individuals to have the mindset that they can simply buy carbon credits or units and continue creating emissions guilt-free. This is a form of ‘greenwashing’. This is when companies wrongfully present themselves as environmentally friendly.   

Climeworks

Swiss company Climeworks operates similarly to Carbon Engineering. Climeworks has built 14 DAC facilities around the globe. This includes the world’s first commercial-scale DAC facility.14 It is also building the world’s largest DAC facility in Iceland.15 

Climeworks permanently stores some of the CO2 they capture underground. However, it also recycles and reuses some of the CO2.16 For example, it sells it to fruit and vegetable suppliers for use in their greenhouses.17 This helps reduce costs for Climeworks.18 The downside is that the carbon is not kept from the atmosphere.

Global Thermostat

US-based carbon capture company Global Thermostat has two pilot DAC facilities. Each can capture approximately 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of CO2 directly from the air.19 The projects are receiving investment from oil and gas giant ExxonMobil. Working in partnership, the two companies aim to remove just under a gigatonne of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. They also aim to continue to expand until they are removing about 36 gigatonnes of CO2 annually.20 

What does this pledge mean for smaller carbon capture companies?

Smaller carbon capture companies may not have investment from the world’s largest oil and gas producer, or e-commerce platforms. Therefore, they could greatly benefit from the fact that Elon Musk wants these technologies to expand. Also, it seems unlikely that any of the companies mentioned above will apply to the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition as they already have funding and projects underway. 

Consequently, the competition could help smaller carbon capture companies to develop their own technologies. In the competition FAQs, it is clear that anyone can form a team and apply. It mentions “startups, university groups, small to midsize companies, high school students, families, or even individuals”. It is evidently an inclusive competition with few limitations on entrants. 

The cost of DAC

The biggest challenge facing direct air capture as a climate mitigation tool is the price. It is more costly per tonne of CO2 that it captures than most mitigation approaches. For instance, the costs for DAC vary between USD $250 and $600, depending on the technology. By contrast, planting more trees and enhancing forests is a much cheaper way to remove CO2. Reforestation typically costs less than USD $50 per tonne of CO2.21 

DAC is expensive due to the low concentration of CO2 in the air. It requires large amounts of energy to separate it. Estimates for the cost of DAC anticipate a fall in price to around USD $150 to $200 per tonne over the next five to 10 years. Additional investment and development of the technology can accelerate this price reduction. This is exactly why Elon Musk wants carbon capture projects to apply to his competition.22 

Elon Musk wants carbon capture development – can he not just plant trees?

It is true that trees naturally absorb CO2 and store it for centuries.23 However, planting enough trees to soak up large quantities of CO2 requires huge tracts of land. Scientists in 2019 made the recommendation to plant billions of trees around the world.24 They found that this could reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO2 by a quarter.25 But, it would require planting an area of land the size of the US and China combined.26 

However, the study’s findings have been criticised. There was an overestimation of the amount of carbon that trees can store. Also, much of the land deemed available for tree planting has plants already growing on it. Replacing them with trees would release the carbon they are currently storing.27 

Moreover, it takes time for seedlings to grow into mature trees. This is important since older and larger trees absorb and store more CO2.28 We need trees for many different reasons, not least for their ability to remove CO2 from the air. However, we continue to emit too many CO2 emissions for tree planting alone to solve climate change.

Direct air capture and climate change

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that we need 10 gigatonnes of CO2 removal per year by 2050. Otherwise, global warming will exceed 1.5°C or even 2°C.29 Planting trees is an important part of the solution. Stopping the deforestation of our current forests is also vital. There is no way to reduce global warming without these nature-based solutions.

However, DAC can capture more CO2 using less land than nature-based solutions. Unlike other carbon capture techniques, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), there is no need for arable land to fuel the plant. They can also be built anywhere. The problem is, there are currently just 15 DAC plants in operation. They capture about 9,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.30 

A significant and immediate increase in DAC plants is needed to help prevent climate change. We need this technology operating at scale as soon as possible. This is why Elon Musk wants carbon capture to thrive. Hopefully, his global competition offering the largest incentive prize in history can help boost this technology, before it is too late.

Sources

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