Air Canada invests in carbon capture tech firm

Air Canada is financially backing a climate solutions company with a $6.75 million investment.

The money is going towards developing technology that captures carbon directly “in an industrial scale “ from the air to fight climate change.

The support for Canadian company Carbon Engineering (CE) follows an earlier $5 million injection into Swedish electric hybrid aircraft developer Heart Aerospace.

The support is coming from a $50 million investment fund set up by Air Canada to support new technologies as it seeks to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The direct air capture process uses large fans to pull in air and then extracts the CO2 through a series of processes while returning the other air components to the environment. 

The captured atmospheric CO2 can be used to reduce aviation emissions by producing sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) that can be “drop-in” compatible with today’s aircraft. 

The captured CO2 can also be stored in geologic reservoirs to provide carbon dioxide removals that can used to offset emissions, according to CE.

Airline chief executive Michael Rousseau said: “We remain focused on seeking innovative, long-term, sustainable emissions reduction solutions for aviation, and carbon capture is one we have outlined in our strategy to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. 

“Last year, we became the first Canadian airline to sign an MOU with CE to explore carbon capture scalability and other initiatives for our industry. 

“We are proud to invest in CE to further advance new, transformational technologies towards carbon removal commercially.”