Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), a subsidiary of Occidental (Oxy), has awarded a services contract to Worley on Nov. 8 for a facility being designed to produce renewable fuels in British Columbia by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Using Carbon Engineering’s Direct Air Capture and AIR TO FUELS technologies, the facility is expected to produce up to 100 million liters (26.4 million gallons) of ultra-low carbon fuel annually for the local Canadian market.

The DAC-to-fuels facility, to be developed by OLCV and Huron Clean Energy, is expected to be the first commercial-scale project of its kind. When built, the facility’s low-carbon fuels are expected to provide an important new option for hard-to-decarbonize industries, such as marine, air, rail and truck transportation. Transporters could choose these fuels as a method of dramatically reducing their fleets’ carbon dioxide footprint without the need for vehicle modification.

Worley will provide pre-FEED services for the facility and will act as project integrator for the technology. Construction on the DAC-to-fuels project is scheduled to begin in 2023, with the facility anticipated to be operational by 2026. Upon completion of the pre-FEED, the project is expected to move into the FEED and then engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction phase.

“We are proud to partner with Carbon Engineering and Huron on the AIR TO FUELS project and pleased that Worley will join the team to conduct the pre-FEED,” said Richard Jackson, president of operations, U.S. onshore resources and carbon management of Oxy. “We selected Worley based on our experience working with them and believe their method of driving innovation within their company will advance the development of the AIR TO FUELS facility.”

Worley is also developing the FEED for a direct air capture facility (DAC-1) being developed in the U.S. Permian Basin by OLCV’s 1PointFive subsidiary, which is expected to capture 1 million metric tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide for permanent storage when completed.  

“We are delighted to have been awarded this contract by OLCV and are looking forward to building on the relationship we started on the DAC-1 project earlier this year. The significance of the direct air capture technology being extended to renewables fully aligns with Worley’s purpose of delivering a more sustainable world,” Chris Ashton, CEO of Worley, said.

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