Japan's ANA to offset some emissions through direct air capture

Japan's All Nippon Airways will offset part of its greenhouse gas emissions through a carbon credit trading system underpinned by a new technology known as direct air capture (DAC). ANA said on Tuesday it has signed a contract to purchase 30,000 tonnes' worth of carbon trading credits from 1PointFive of the US. The American company will in turn use DAC to absorb that amount of carbon dioxide directly from the air over three years from 2025. The deal makes ANA the world's first airline to sign a contract to purchase credits involving DAC technology. No value for the deal was given. In DAC, high-powered fans draw air into a processing facility where the carbon dioxide is separated out through a series of chemical reactions, according to 1PointFive. The CO2 is either securely stored in underground reservoirs or used to produce fuels or industrial materials. 1PointFive is a subsidiary of US oil and gas supplier Occidental Petroleum. The company is constructing its first DAC facility in Texas and plans to put it into commercial use by mid-2025. The facility is expected to be the largest in the world, with an annual capture capacity of 500,000 tonnes of CO2. The aviation industry is one of the globe's biggest emitters of CO2 and is under urgent pressure to go green. Airlines aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from aircraft operations by 2050 through a combination of measures, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and improvements in the efficiency of aircraft. Sustainable aviation fuel emits up to 80% less carbon dioxide over its life cycle than standard jet fuel, according to Finnish biofuel producer Neste. "But even if jet fuels were entirely replaced with SAF, we would still need to offset the remaining 20%," said Kohei Yoshikawa, a director at ANA who works in the airline's decarbonization team. "This is why DAC technology is crucial." <br/>