As the aviation industry seeks to cut its carbon footprint, Boeing has just signed a deal to help its quest for a sustainable jet fuel, and it's tied to an unlikely source: the ocean.
The aerospace giant has signed a deal with a Los
Angeles-based startup to buy hydrogen that will be produced by facilities
designed to cleanse seawater of carbon dioxide so the ocean can absorb more of
that greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
By absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide emissions since the
Industrial Revolution, the ocean has acted as a giant carbon sink and been a
crucial buffer in protecting people from even worse effects of early climate
change.
Equatic said Boeing has agreed to pre-purchase the hydrogen,
which will be produced when it employs the carbon-removal system — developed by
University of California Los Angeles engineering faculty — at facilities at the
port of Los Angeles and Singapore. It is slated to be up and running in 2025.
Researchers have been testing the system at demonstration sites in both
locations.
The green hydrogen could then be used as a component in
sustainable aviation fuel. Aviation currently accounts for about 2.5% of
worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide.
Equatic’s Chief Operating Officer Edward Sanders
acknowledged that Boeing’s backing is a huge boost for an initiative that is
just getting off the ground.
“With the deal with Boeing, they recognize that hydrogen
will be useful for them," he said. "And we’ve had some very
encouraging conversations with other industries who also need hydrogen who have
plans to do it through the carbon-neutral generation of green hydrogen.”
To help keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, the
world’s largest association of airlines, the International Air Transport
Association, has set a goal for the air transport industry to reach net zero
carbon emissions by 2050. President Joe Biden's administration wants all
kerosene-based jet fuel to be replaced with sustainable fuel by 2050.
While other forms of transportation are increasingly being
electrified, making large, battery-powered planes has presented a costly
challenge and many in the aviation industry are instead exploring replacing
fossil fuels with sustainable fuels, which would not require major technical
modifications to the aircraft. The world's first synthetic kerosene plant
opened in Germany in 2021.
Equatic said it will remove 62,000 metric tons of carbon
dioxide for Boeing and supply the aerospace company with 2,100 metric tons of
hydrogen under its five-year agreement. The companies declined to provide
details about how much revenue would be generated or other details of the deal.
Sheila Remes, Boeing’s vice president of environmental
sustainability, said in a statement that “reaching aviation’s sustainability
goals will require a multi-faceted approach and Boeing sees significant
opportunity in Equatic's technology.”
Equatic's process sends an electrical charge through
seawater that then sets off a series of chemical reactions that trap the
greenhouse gas into a solid mineral, while also producing hydrogen. The
seawater is then returned to the ocean and can pull more carbon dioxide out of
the air, while the solid mineral, which contains calcium carbonate, can then
settle to the sea floor.
Revenue from selling hydrogen, as well as carbon credits
companies can claim to balance out their pollution, will be applied toward
Equatic’s plans to open facilities.
According to the UCLA team that developed the technology, at
least 1,800 industrial-scale facilities would be needed to capture 10 billion
tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year, but fewer could still make a dent.
The aim is to remove the carbon at a cost well below $100
per metric ton, the company has said. It added that the hydrogen would be
produced at less than $1 per kilogram, which would be substantially less than
the current cost of cleanly-produced hydrogen.
Equatic said it aims to reach 100,000 metric tons of carbon
removal per year by 2026 and millions of metric tons per year by 2028.
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