What is direct air capture (DAC) technology?

Some people picture it as a giant vacuum. But one of our experts thinks it’s more like “a massive hair dryer.”

We’re talking about direct air capture (DAC), which can remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) directly from the atmosphere. ExxonMobil is working to advance this technology, because it could play a key role in helping the world meet its net-zero goals.

Interested? Click here to learn about DAC and meet our experts, Jim, Jesse and Rodrigo.

Five things to know about DAC:

• How does DAC work? Air is passed through a sophisticated filter that captures CO₂, which is then compressed and sent via pipeline to safe, permanent, underground storage.
• Why is DAC important? DAC can complement other emissions-reduction technologies and offset emissions that are difficult to eliminate, so it could one day be a key solution for reaching net zero.
• Where will DAC be installed? Because DAC removes CO₂ directly from the air, it can be installed almost anywhere! But its initial growth would most likely be in locations that can make use of CO₂ transportation infrastructure, like the CO₂ pipeline network we operate along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
• What’s the challenge? The concentration of CO₂ in the air is super low, which makes it much harder to capture CO₂ than at a manufacturing facility, where a concentrated stream of CO₂ can be identified. So, it’s not cheap. The cost of running DAC needs to be lowered before it can be scaled commercially.
• What are we doing about it? We’re testing our own version of the technology with a pilot project at our facility in Baytown, Texas. Our goal is to learn what works and what doesn’t, so we can improve the technology over time, and create a scalable, economically viable solution.

Direct air capture: Just one of the technologies we’re advancing to help enable a net-zero future.