Occidental's 1PointFive receives funding up to $500 mln by US DOE

Occidental Petroleum’s carbon capture unit 1PointFive announced on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations had committed up to 500 million dollars to support the development of the South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub (DAC).

BlackRock, one of the largest asset managers in the world, had funded this facility previously.

Occidental’s first large-scale DAC plant represents a pivotal trial in terms of economics for a technology, which the International Energy Agency believes will play a crucial role for industrial decarbonization globally despite initial high costs.

According to Occidental, the total award from the OCED could reach $650 million to develop a regional carbon network that is expanded in South Texas.

Occidental said that the hub's initial capacity to remove carbon dioxide of 500,000 metric tonnes per year could grow to more than one million metric tonnes per year.

1PointFive announced earlier this year that it would also sell carbon credits, including to AT&T and Microsoft.

Carbon credits are permits that can be traded and allow their owner to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gasses. (Reporting and editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi in Bengaluru)

(source: Reuters)