Carbon capture
Capturing CO₂ from smokestacks and the air, then storing or using it — 68 Mtpa operating worldwide, subsidy-led
Carbon capture covers equipment and services that separate CO₂ from industrial exhaust (point-source CCS/CCUS) or from ambient air (direct air capture), then move it by pipeline or ship to permanent geological storage or into products such as concrete. Customers are oil sands operators, refiners, gas processors, cement, fertilizer and power plants, plus corporate buyers of carbon-removal credits. The Global CCS Institute counted 113 commercial projects in operation with 68 Mtpa of capture capacity at 31 July 2026, and a further 56 Mtpa under construction. Growth depends on public incentives (US 45Q, Canada's CCUS investment tax credit), on carbon pricing and on a small number of large credit buyers.
new market · sits inside NAICS 486990, 213112, 541330, 541715 · researched 2026-11-14
operating CO₂ capture capacity · world68
↗Mt CO₂ per year (Mtpa) · 2026
capture capacity under construction · world56
↗Mt CO₂ per year (59 projects) · 2026
commercial CCS projects in operation · world113
↗projects · 2026
total capture capacity, operating plus in development · world513
↗Mt CO₂ per year · 2025
G
Growth
Dated and sourced; forecasts are labelled as forecasts.
- 2025-10Global CCS Institute (9 Oct 2025): operational CCS projects rose 54% year-on-year, from 50 to 77, with 27 new facilities online in 12 months; total capture capacity (operating and in development) grew 23% to 513 Mtpa. ↗
- 2026-10Forecast: Global Status of CCS 2026 says operating capacity is expected to exceed 100 Mtpa once projects now under construction enter service. It also notes that capture capacity is not the same as actual annual capture. More than 400 Mt of CO₂ has been captured and permanently stored since 1996. ↗
- 2025-07US One Big Beautiful Bill Act (signed 4 July 2025) keeps the 45Q credit at $85/t for point-source capture and $180/t for direct air capture in dedicated storage. It gives CO₂ used in EOR or in products the same value, and it keeps transferability. ↗
- 2026-04Carbon-removal credit demand is concentrated: citing CDR.fyi, ESG Dive reported that Microsoft made 87% of carbon removal purchases in 2025 and held 78.5% of all disclosed contracted durable removals as of 13 April 2026. Its share of Q1 2026 purchases fell to 56%, after reports that it had paused buying, which the company denied. ↗
S
Segments
Each linked segment has its own page with its companies.
- Point-source carbon capture 7 — Solvent, sorbent or membrane plants that strip CO₂ from refinery, upgrader, gas-processing, cement, fertilizer and power-plant exhaust
- CO₂ transport & storage 5 — Pipelines, ships and injection wells that move CO₂ into saline formations or depleted reservoirs; the Institute counts 266 dedicated transport and storage projects
- Direct air capture 6 — Machines that pull CO₂ from ambient air for storage; costly but eligible for the highest credits ($180/t under 45Q, 60% ITC in Canada)
- CO₂ utilisation 3 — Using captured CO₂ in enhanced oil recovery, concrete mineralisation, fuels and chemicals
- Carbon-removal credits 5 — Sale of verified tonnes removed (DAC, BECCS, mineralisation) to corporate buyers, mostly through multi-year offtake contracts
C
Leading companies in carbon capture
16 companies, with the scale each source states.
| Company | Where | What they do | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occidental Petroleum (1PointFive) OXY ↗ | Houston, United States | Through its subsidiary 1PointFive, builds STRATOS, a direct air capture plant in Ector County, Texas, and sells its carbon-removal credits to buyers including Microsoft and Amazon | design capture capacity (STRATOS): 500,000 tonnes CO₂ per year (2026) ↗ |
| Carbon Engineering ↗ | Squamish, Canada since 2009 | Direct air capture technology developer, licensed to 1PointFive; acquired by Occidental | acquisition price: 1.1 USD billions (Aug 2023) (2023) ↗ |
| Svante ↗ | Burnaby, Canada since 2007 | Makes solid-sorbent filters and rotary contactor machines that capture CO₂ from industrial exhaust and from air (formerly Inventys) | Series E financing led by Chevron New Energies: 318 USD millions (the same page also gives US$270M) (2022) ↗ |
| Shell (Quest, Polaris) SHEL ↗ | London, United Kingdom | Operates the Quest CCS project at the Scotford upgrader in Alberta (since 2015). Polaris capture at Scotford reached FID in June 2024; it is co-owner of Northern Lights | Quest capture capacity: 1 Mt CO₂ per year (2023) ↗ |
| ExxonMobil XOM ↗ | Spring, United States | CCS transport and storage for third-party emitters on the US Gulf Coast, using the CO₂ pipeline network it acquired with Denbury | CCS commitments (incl. up to 6.7 Mt/yr third-party contracted, 7.5 Mt/yr Baytown pending FID): 14 Mt CO₂ per year (more than) (2025) ↗ |
| Northern Lights ↗ | Stavanger, Norway | Open-access CO₂ shipping and North Sea storage service; operating since 2025 and receiving CO₂ from Brevik and other emitters | — |
| Heidelberg Materials HEI.DE ↗ | Heidelberg, Germany | Opened Brevik CCS, the first industrial-scale capture at a cement plant (June 2025), and sells evoZero carbon-captured cement | Brevik capture capacity: 400,000 tonnes CO₂ per year (2025) ↗ |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 7011.T ↗ | Tokyo, Japan | Licenses the amine-based KM CDR post-combustion capture process (with Kansai Electric) and supplies process design for capture plants | KM CDR capture plants delivered: 18 plants (2024) ↗ |
| Climeworks ↗ | Zürich, Switzerland since 2009 | Runs direct air capture plants (Orca, Mammoth in Iceland) and sells removal credits to buyers such as British Airways and Morgan Stanley; partner in the Project Cypress DAC hub in Louisiana | Mammoth plant capacity: 36,000 tonnes CO₂ per year (up to) (2024) ↗ |
| Heirloom Carbon Technologies ↗ | United States since 2020 | Limestone-based direct air capture; Tracy, California plant opened Nov 2023; Microsoft offtake for up to 315,000 t | Tracy plant design capacity: 1,000 tonnes CO₂ per year (2023) ↗ |
| CarbonCure Technologies ↗ | Halifax, Canada since 2012 | Injects captured CO₂ into concrete, where it mineralises permanently; co-winner of a US$7.5M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE grand prize (2021) | — |
| Entropy Inc. ↗ | Calgary, Canada | Develops modular capture plus transport and storage projects in Alberta (Glacier gas plant; Bow Valley Carbon Hub with Inter Pipeline, est. 5 Mtpa; Grande Prairie hub, est. 3.3 Mtpa) | — |
| Deep Sky ↗ | Montreal, Canada | Carbon-removal project developer; its Deep Sky Alpha test centre in Alberta is described as North America's first facility capturing CO₂ directly from air, and it plans Deep Sky One DAC | — |
| SaskPower (Boundary Dam 3) ↗ | Regina, Canada | Operates the Boundary Dam Unit 3 coal-power capture retrofit (opened Oct 2014, ~C$1.5B after overruns); sells CO₂ for EOR | design capture (90% of unit emissions): 1 Mt CO₂ per year (approx.) (2014) ↗ |
| Oil Sands Alliance (Pathways Project) ↗ | Canada since 2022 | Proposes the Pathways CCS network: over 650 km of CO₂ pipeline from oil sands facilities to a storage hub near Cold Lake, Alberta | — |
| Microsoft MSFT ↗ | Redmond, United States | Dominant buyer of carbon-removal credits (DAC, BECCS and others), and therefore the main source of revenue for removal suppliers | share of 2025 carbon removal purchases (per CDR.fyi, via ESG Dive): 87 percent (2025) ↗ |
CA
In Canada
- 2024-08Federal CCUS investment tax credit (Royal Assent 20 June 2024): refundable; for 2022–2030 it is 60% for DAC capture equipment, 50% for other capture equipment and 37.5% for transport, storage and use equipment. Rates halve for 2031–2040 and the credit ends after 2040. ↗
- 2024-08Shell took FID on 26 June 2024 on Polaris at Scotford, Alberta (about 650,000 t CO₂/yr), with the Atlas Carbon Storage Hub (with ATCO EnPower). Both are expected to begin operating in late 2028. ↗
- 2025-11Canada–Alberta MOU (signed 27 Nov 2025, Calgary) commits to advance construction of 'Pathways Plus', described as the world's largest CCUS project. It ties Pathways to a proposed West Coast bitumen pipeline and a stronger industrial carbon pricing agreement. ↗
- 2023-12Quest CCS (Scotford, operating since Aug 2015) injected 1,003 kilotonnes of CO₂ in 2023. Cumulative storage is expected to exceed 27 Mt over the upgrader's 25-year life. ↗
R
What would have to be true
- Economics depend on subsidies and carbon prices (45Q, Canada's ITC, Alberta industrial pricing). Pathways says it is contingent on 'sufficient fiscal and policy supports'.
- Removal-credit demand is concentrated in one buyer (Microsoft held 78.5% of contracted durable removals in April 2026); a slowdown in its buying would hit DAC revenues.
- Delivery track record is mixed: a 2022 review found about 70% of announced CCS projects did not materialise, Boundary Dam ran about 40% of the time in 2015, and STRATOS commissioning slipped from 2025 into 2026.
- DAC cost must fall a long way: Wikipedia reports DAC costs above US$1,000/t in 2025, against credit values of $180/t (45Q).
Quick answers
- How big is the carbon capture market?
- operating CO₂ capture capacity (world): 68 Mt CO₂ per year (Mtpa), 2026 — Global CCS Institute; capture capacity under construction (world): 56 Mt CO₂ per year (59 projects), 2026 — Global CCS Institute.
- Is the carbon capture market growing?
- Global CCS Institute (9 Oct 2025): operational CCS projects rose 54% year-on-year, from 50 to 77, with 27 new facilities online in 12 months; total capture capacity (operating and in development) grew 23% to 513 Mtpa.
- Who are the leading carbon capture companies?
- Occidental Petroleum (1PointFive) (United States), Carbon Engineering (Canada), Svante (Canada), Shell (Quest, Polaris) (United Kingdom), ExxonMobil (United States), Northern Lights (Norway), Heidelberg Materials (Germany), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan), and 8 more in the table above.
- Which carbon capture companies are publicly traded?
- Occidental Petroleum (1PointFive) (OXY), Shell (Quest, Polaris) (SHEL), ExxonMobil (XOM), Heidelberg Materials (HEI.DE), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T), Microsoft (MSFT).
- Which Canadian companies are in carbon capture?
- Carbon Engineering, Squamish; Svante, Burnaby; CarbonCure Technologies, Halifax; Entropy Inc., Calgary; Deep Sky, Montreal; SaskPower (Boundary Dam 3), Regina; Oil Sands Alliance (Pathways Project).
- What is happening with carbon capture in Canada?
- Federal CCUS investment tax credit (Royal Assent 20 June 2024): refundable; for 2022–2030 it is 60% for DAC capture equipment, 50% for other capture equipment and 37.5% for transport, storage and use equipment. Rates halve for 2031–2040 and the credit ends after 2040.
- What are the main segments of the carbon capture market?
- Point-source capture, CO₂ transport and storage, Direct air capture (DAC), CO₂ utilisation, Carbon-removal credits.
- What are the risks in the carbon capture market?
- Economics depend on subsidies and carbon prices (45Q, Canada's ITC, Alberta industrial pricing). Pathways says it is contingent on 'sufficient fiscal and policy supports'.
Sources (25)
- Global Status of CCS 2026 — Global CCS Institute
- Carbon capture stays the course despite global headwinds with 54% rise in operational projects — Global CCS Institute
- U.S. preserves and increases 45Q credit in One Big Beautiful Bill Act — Global CCS Institute
- Deputy Prime Minister visits the Polaris Carbon Capture project to highlight the federal CCUS investment tax credit — Department of Finance Canada
- Canada and Alberta strike new partnership to lower emissions and unlock our energy potential — Prime Minister of Canada
- Microsoft says its carbon removal program has not ended following report — ESG Dive
- Oxy's 1PointFive expects STRATOS DAC plant online in second quarter 2026 — Oil & Gas Journal
- STRATOS — 1PointFive
- About us — Svante
- A breakout year for our carbon capture and storage business — ExxonMobil
- Northern Lights — Northern Lights JV
- World premiere at Heidelberg Materials: Opening of CCS facility in Norway — Heidelberg Materials
- Press Information (KM CDR Process at Ravenna CCS) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- Entropy Inc. — Entropy Inc.
- Deep Sky — Deep Sky
- Pathways Project — Oil Sands Alliance
- Carbon capture and storage — Wikipedia
- Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project — Wikipedia
- Carbon Engineering — Wikipedia
- Climeworks — Wikipedia
- Heirloom Carbon Technologies — Wikipedia
- CarbonCure Technologies — Wikipedia
- Boundary Dam Power Station — Wikipedia
- Pathways Alliance (Oil Sands Alliance) — Wikipedia
- Direct air capture — Wikipedia