A consortium that includes Southern California Gas Co. has been awarded funding by the U.S. Department of Energy for a proposal to develop California’s first full-scale direct air capture and storage network of regional hubs.
“This is an important step in our efforts to help California decarbonize and reach net-zero goals,” SoCalGas President Maryam Brown said Friday. “California’s transition to net zero will require a broad portfolio of diverse energy sources and decarbonization tools to reduce emissions, including carbon management.
“This project could reduce one million metric tons of carbon dioxide directly from the air each year and aid in a more equitable energy transition,” Brown continued. “Our research has shown that carbon management, when combined with electrification and clean fuels, delivers the most affordable, resilient and technologically proven path to full carbon neutrality.”
The Department of Energy selected the California Direct Air Capture hub for up to $11.8 million in funding to study a regional carbon management hub in Kern County. It’s among only five projects nationwide to be funded under the department’s $3.5 billion Direct Air Capture Hubs program, and the only one in California.
The hub consists of nearly 40 organizations from across industry, community, tribes, government, technology, national labs, academia, labor, and workforce development, according to SoCalGas officials.
SoCalGas will advance a Front-End Engineering Design study to transport carbon captured from the air to permanent carbon storage in the region. Officials said efforts completed to date suggest that the hub could remove 1 million or more metric tons of CO2 annually — equivalent to taking more than 220,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles off the road each year.
Carbon management, along with other clean energy tools such as hydrogen and renewable natural gas, is a key component of the suite of tools SoCalGas has been developing as part of its overall clean energy strategy to reach-net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.