Innovative Hybrid Direct Air Capture Technology Pilot Launches as Carbon Management Solutions Scale Up Across the U.S.

SoCalGas contributed approximately $650,000 to the $3.2 million project, which has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support innovative carbon removal technologies to help enable a carbon neutral future.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) announced today that after nearly two years of development, an innovative carbon removal technology called Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC) is being brought online in Bakersfield, CA. This technology is being developed by Los Angeles based startup Avnos, Inc., with a pilot project to demonstrate how the technology removes carbon dioxide from the air and generates water using only electricity. SoCalGas is also partnering with Avnos, Inc. on a larger pilot project designed to demonstrate how this technology could be scaled up 1,000% from its current iteration.

"The ability to scale carbon management projects while advancing the underlying technologies could be critical to achieving the state's ambitious goal of sequestering 100 million metric tons of CO₂ by 2045," says Neil Navin, Chief Clean Fuels Officer at SoCalGas. "Carbon management, if developed at scale, could help reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, and represents a tremendous opportunity for economic development and the creation of high-quality jobs."

The technology was conceived at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and is a hybrid form of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology designed to simultaneously capture CO2 and water from the air. The two-stage system removes water vapor and then captures CO2 from the dry air stream. It then compresses the CO2, allowing for transport, storage, or utilization, and condenses the water vapor into liquid water for reuse.

"Avnos is proud to be at the forefront of this transformative journey, offering potentially scalable solutions that could play a vital role in addressing the pressing challenges of our time," said Will Kain, CEO of Avnos. "SoCalGas has been a tremendous partner and this collaborative milestone is a testament to our commitment to innovation and shared vision for a sustainable, carbon-neutral future. As we witness the utilization of HDAC, we believe it's a significant step towards achieving our ambitious goals for carbon management."

Reports from the California Air Resource Board's 2022 Scoping Plan to the International Panel on Climate Change underscore that carbon management could be a critical pathway to decarbonization. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Carbon Management Pathways to Commercial Liftoff models project that reaching the country's clean energy transition goals would require capturing and storing 400 million to 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 annually by 2050. 

Carbon management, along with other cleaner energy tools such as clean hydrogen and renewable natural gas, is a key component to the suite of tools SoCalGas has been developing in support of its overall strategy to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

For more information about SoCalGas's carbon management efforts, visit http://www.socalgas.com/carboncapture

About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas service to over 21 million consumers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California. Gas delivered through the company's pipelines will continue to play a key role in California's clean energy transition—providing electric grid reliability and supporting wind and solar energy deployment. 

SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy infrastructure company in America. In support of that mission, SoCalGas aspires to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and delivery of energy by 2045 and to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply to core customers with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for customers. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra (NYSE: SRE), an energy infrastructure company based in San Diego. 

For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.  

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Factors, among others, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement include: decisions, investigations, inquiries, regulations, denials or revocations of permits, consents, approvals or other authorizations, renewals of franchises, and other actions by the (i) California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other governmental and regulatory bodies and (ii) U.S. and states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions therein where we do business; the success of business development efforts and construction projects, including risks in (i) completing construction projects or other transactions on schedule and budget, (ii) realizing anticipated benefits from any of these efforts if completed, and (iii) obtaining third-party consents and approvals; macroeconomic trends or other factors that could change our capital expenditure plans and their potential impact on rate base or other growth; litigation, arbitrations and other proceedings, and changes to laws and regulations, including those related to tax and trade policy; cybersecurity threats, including by state and state-sponsored actors, of ransomware or other attacks on our systems or the systems of third parties with which we conduct business, including the energy grid or other energy infrastructure, all of which continue to become more pronounced; the availability, uses, sufficiency, and cost of capital resources and our ability to borrow money on favorable terms and meet our obligations, including due to (i) actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or place those ratings on negative outlook, (ii) instability in the capital markets, or (iii) rising interest rates and inflation; failure of our counterparties to honor their contracts and commitments; the impact on affordability of our customer rates and our cost of capital and on our ability to pass through higher costs to customers due to (i) volatility in inflation, interest rates and commodity prices and (ii) the cost of the clean energy transition in California; the impact of climate and sustainability policies, laws, rules, regulations, disclosures and trends, including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas, increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory environment for California natural gas distribution companies, the risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets, and our ability to incorporate new technologies; weather, natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures, explosions, terrorism, information system outages or other events that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities or systems, cause the release of harmful materials or fires or subject us to liability for damages, fines and penalties, some of which may not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms or insurance or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable insurance; the availability of natural gas and natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the pipeline system or limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities; and other uncertainties, some of which are difficult to predict and beyond our control.

These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that the company has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on Sempra's website, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.

Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.P.I. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company or Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the CPUC.

SOURCE Southern California Gas Company