Thinking big and out-of-the-box, Carbon Engineering says they can remove CO2 from ambient air then use the carbon to create fuel. The process and machinery can be powered by renewable energy, sited anywhere, and scaled to suit local needs. There isn’t a big demand for this technology now. In a few years though, if the technology proves to be reliable, cost-effective, and scalable, there easily could be. Bill Gates is an investor.
From their home page:
Carbon Engineering is commercializing technology to capture carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, which we will use to enable production of ultra-low carbon fuels.
Air capture of CO2 enables large facilities to manage emissions from any source or location so that industrial economies of scale can be applied to the large fraction of emissions that come from distributed and mobile sources such as vehicles, airplanes, and buildings. Air capture can provide pure CO2 at point of demand for industrial use, and atmospheric CO2 can be used via multiple production pathways to manufacture ultra-low emissions fuels.
CE’s technology strategy is to develop a low-risk, chemical-based CO2 air capture system that we can bring to market in the near-term with competitive economics. Our air capture system combines proven, scalable industrial technologies with CE’s proprietary designs and innovations.