The world’s largest, and North America’s first commercial-scale ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) plant will be set up by carbon removal company Equatic and Canadian carbon removal project developer Deep Sky. This plant will remove 109,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and produce 3,600 tonnes of green hydrogen per year.
“Governing bodies around the world emphatically assert the need for accessible, cost-effective, and permanent carbon removal solutions, at low-cost, and with low energy requirements. Our commercial-scale development speaks directly to that need,” said Edward Muller, Chairman of Equatic.
He added, “Quebec is the perfect location for commercial launch given the access to non-fossil electricity and the use of hydrogen to decarbonize the province’s well-established industrial base. Just as important, Deep Sky’s experience, coupled with its local relationships, will keep us on track to be operational by 2026-2027.”
Damien Steel, Deep Sky CEO said, “As climate urgency grows, we need to accelerate the development of commercial facilities. We’re thrilled to begin the engineering phase of a commercial-scale plant with Equatic, moving closer to removing billions of tons of CO2 using the oceans to reverse global warming. The planet isn’t waiting, so we must meet the moment.”
Arup, a global sustainable development firm, is leading the assessment and planning of this commercial-scale plant, including siting, permitting, and stakeholder governance. The plant’s design will be based on the modular electrolyzers that allows the installation, operation, and maintenance of individual units to be staged and stacked, facilitating systematic and rapid expansion, as well as efficient operations.
The net energy requirement is less than 1.4 megawatt hours per tonne of carbon dioxide removed, and the electrolyzers employ Equatic’s oxygen-selective anodes that were developed with the support of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to produce green hydrogen while eliminating the unwanted production of chlorine during seawater electrolysis.
The new commercial-scale plant and all subsequent Equatic projects will adhere to the most advanced measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) standards in electrolytic ocean-based carbon removal: ISO 14064-2:2019.
