Kenyan start-up generates carbon credits from thin air
In the scrublands of central Kenya, engineers at Octavia Carbon are using geothermal steam to power machines that pull carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air, part of a growing effort to scale up direct air carbon capture (DACC) technology. The startup’s prototype machines use chemical filters to trap CO₂, which is then released using heat and stored. Each unit captures about 10 tonnes of CO₂ per year, roughly equivalent to 1,000 trees and the credits are sold to companies seeking to offset emissions. Kenya’s location along the Great Rift Valley gives it a unique advantage. Nearly half of the country’s electricity comes from geothermal sources, and the region’s volcanic rock formations are suitable for storing captured carbon underground.
REUTERS VIDEO
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00:00So this machine that you see behind me here removes as much as the two from the
00:20atmosphere as about 100 trees. Our more scaled-up versions remove as much as
00:241,000 trees per year from the atmosphere. And you can already see that like to
00:29plant 1,000 trees you would need about 10 hectares of land like this
00:34machine and like the machines like it that we build like have a very minimal
00:38land footprint basically which also make it a very scalable solution in
00:42addressing climate change.
00:54So this is one of the machines we use to capture CO2 we call it Lenana.
00:59The process is basically divided into a capture phase and a release phase. In the
01:02capture phase we pass a volume of air through the machine facilitated by a
01:06blower and a fan at the top and as air passes through the machine there is a
01:11filter inside that selectively captures the CO2. We monitor the concentrations and
01:17once the filter is saturated we seal off the machine create a vacuum and then
01:23heat up the filter to facilitate the release phase. Once all the CO2 has been
01:28released from the filter we move it into a buffer tank before compressing it into
01:32cylinders.
01:33Our hope is to demonstrate that this cost like that that this technology can
01:49actually come down the cost curve and it can be a lot more feasible as we build and
01:52deploy it basically. And as we do that I think we really hope that will sort of
01:56create a real hope in the fight against climate change. Hope that there is a way for the world to actually like affordably hit net zero. And as we do that I think we really hope that it will sort of create a real hope in the fight against climate change.
01:59Hope that there is a way for the world to actually like affordably hit net zero and that we don't sort of have to drastically change our lives to get to that point basically.
02:06And that hope is really like what we are building these machines for.
02:09One of the major challenges with carbon capture is that it's very energy, it's an energy intensive process. You need a lot of energy for the process. For example 85% of our needs in the machine are thermal energy. And in this case the way we are trying to solve for that for that
02:28in Octavia Carbon is that we are trying to tap into using geothermal steam or geothermal waste heat which comes at a very low cost.
