How Direct Air Capture is Critical to Combating Climate Change

In order to combat climate change, companies are finding ways to reduce carbon emissions – which is the leading greenhouse gas contributing to this phenomenon. At Vinyl360, we heard from Dr. Robert Zeller, Vice President of Technology at Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), about how Occidental Chemical Corporation (Oxy) is lowering, and even neutralizing, their carbon emissions.

What is OLCV?

Oxy founded OLCV in 2018 to sustainably enhance their business while providing impactful global emissions reductions solutions. Oxy’s goal is to be the premier low carbon management firm not only for the United States, but for the world. With OLCV, they are developing carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies to remove human-made carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for use in lower carbon oil production operations.

What differentiates OLCV from other carbon management firms is they know how to do it economically. They’ve been doing it in their normal business operations for 40 years – and continue to do it today – and are ready to advise others.

One method of creating a circular carbon neutral cycle that Oxy is facilitating is through Direct Air Capture (DAC). In partnership with Rusheen Capital, OLCV founded 1PointFive, aptly named because multiple projections have stated that we must act now to avoid a 1.5°C or greater temperature change – which could significantly endanger people and planet. And recent science has pointed out that to limit global temperature rises, global emissions need to reach net-zero by 2050. 1PointFive was founded to jumpstart the DAC industry.

The Green Vacation

So what is DAC and how does it work? A simple example is to consider your own personal environmental impact. More and more consumers are recognizing the emissions they are creating, whether from the shipping associated with their online shopping habits or the impact from their air travel. Due to more self-awareness, some consumers are reducing activities like these. But with OLCV, you may not have to limit yourself in order to reduce your carbon emissions.

If you are traveling by plane, when the jet takes off it emits carbon dioxide into the environment. But the atmosphere is one giant pipeline, and out in the Permian basin in West Texas, OLCV/1PointFive is pulling that same amount of carbon dioxide directly from the air. Once captured, it’s put into liquid form, moved into a network of pipelines and injected in certified oil and gas reservoirs.

So how does this impact your vacation’s carbon footprint? It means that the same amount of carbon dioxide that is being sequestered underground through DAC is equal to the amount released by the jet that would be contributing to Scope 1, 2, or 3 emissions – it’s carbon neutral.

Sustainability and Employment

There’s some ambiguity on how creating more sustainable policies impacts job opportunities – because while creating a carbon tax will create more job openings, it will eliminate other jobs at first.

That’s another benefit that OLCV is creating. By harnessing carbon in the ways that Oxy is, there is a much less significant society upheaval, while still committing and implementing more sustainable, low-carbon practices.

For example, if we started phasing out use of current jets because they emit carbon dioxide, those plane operators would lose their jobs. With methods like DAC, everyone will be able to keep their jobs as new ones are also created, all while reducing or equalizing our carbon emissions.