Squamish Scientists Turn Captured Carbon Emissions Into Fuel Pellets

A Canadian clean-energy company based in Squamish, British Columbia, is developing technology that captures carbon dioxide directly from the air and converts it into usable fuel, offering an alternative approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The company, Carbon Engineering, is working on what is known as direct air capture, a process designed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere rather than targeting emissions at a single source such as a power plant. The technology focuses on everyday emissions produced by transportation, agriculture, buildings, and other infrastructure.

Unlike traditional carbon capture systems that store carbon underground, Carbon Engineering's approach aims to reuse the captured carbon by turning it into hydrocarbon fuel that can be burned in vehicles.

How Squamish Scientists Turn Air Into Gasoline

The system operates in several stages. First, large industrial fans pull ambient air into the facility, where chemical solutions extract carbon dioxide from the air. Separately, hydrogen is produced by splitting water molecules using electrolysis, a process powered by renewable electricity such as solar energy.

The captured carbon dioxide is then combined with the hydrogen to create a synthetic hydrocarbon fuel. This fuel can be refined into petrol or diesel and used in existing engines without requiring modifications to vehicles or infrastructure.

According to the company, the result is a closed-loop system where carbon dioxide released during fuel combustion can later be recaptured from the air and reused.

What the Squamish Pilot Plant Actually Does

Carbon Engineering's Squamish pilot plant was designed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the process at scale. At full operation, the facility was expected to produce up to 400 litres of fuel per day using carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere.

The project received funding from private investors, including Bill Gates, and was founded by Canadian climate scientist David Keith, a professor at Harvard University known for his work on climate engineering and carbon mitigation strategies.

Adrian Corless, the company's CEO at the time, told CBC News that the pilot plant was a critical step towards proving the technology could be scaled up. He said the goal was not just to capture carbon, but to do so at a scale large enough to be environmentally relevant.

Why This Technology Differs From Other Carbon Capture

Carbon capture and storage has long been proposed as a way to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use. Most existing systems focus on capturing carbon dioxide at power plants and storing it underground in geological formations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that such systems can prevent up to 90 per cent of emissions from entering the atmosphere.

However, underground storage raises concerns about long-term leakage and does not reduce existing carbon already in the atmosphere.

Direct air capture addresses that limitation by removing carbon dioxide regardless of where it was produced. Critics note that the technology is energy-intensive and expensive, but supporters argue that it could become more viable as renewable energy becomes cheaper.

What This Means for Climate Solutions

Climate scientists widely agree that no single technology can solve climate change on its own. Direct air capture is viewed as a supplementary tool that could help offset emissions that are difficult to eliminate, such as aviation and heavy industry.

Carbon Engineering's work in Squamish represents one of the earliest large-scale attempts to demonstrate that atmospheric carbon can be captured and reused, rather than permanently stored or left in the environment.

While the technology remains under development, it highlights a growing shift towards solutions that focus not only on reducing future emissions, but also on addressing the carbon already present in the air.