Bill Gates-backed startup to capture CO2 equivalent to 40mn trees per year

With the aim to save environment, a Bill Gates-backed startup is planning to build up a futuristic facility that will be able to suck up enough carbon dioxide from atmosphere every year that will be equivalent to 40 million trees.

Billionaire Bill Gates, along with numerous other major energy firms, has backed up a Canadian startup named ‘Carbon Engineering’ in order to build up a ‘negative emissions’ plant that will suck up as much carbon dioxide ever year as 40 million trees do, and use it for other purposes.

“This financing round — the largest of its kind into a [direct air capture] company — shows the growing recognition of both the benefits and commercial readiness of our DAC technology,” said CEO Steve Oldham. “As the world assesses how to address climate change while keeping economies running with the energy they need, our technology can provide a key part of the solution.”

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The firm assured, according to Futurism, that its technology that will be used by its 30-acre facility will be able to store the captured carbon underground or use it to synthesize fuel that could be used to power regular vehicles.

In an interview with Calgary Herald, Oldham teased the possibility that some investors — which include oil companies Chevron and Occidetntal Petroleum Corp — might be interested in using the technology to offset their own carbon emissions.

“It’s a reasonable deduction for anybody to say those companies that have invested in Carbon Engineering would also be interested in becoming the first customers,” Oldham said.