Phase 1 of the Stratos direct air capture (DAC) project in Ector County in West Texas is in the final stages of startup and is expected to be online in Q2 2026, project developer 1PointFive said in an update posted on LinkedIn. The project’s Phase 2 will begin commissioning in Q2, with the ramp-up continuing through the rest of the year.
The Stratos project (see photo below) has met several startup milestones, including key system tests and receipt of the Class VI well permits needed for permanent carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration, according to 1PointFive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental. The remaining steps in Phase 1 include ramping up all remaining pellet reactors, final commissioning of the calciner, and the beginning of CO2 injection.
Once complete, Stratos is expected to be the largest DAC facility in the world. It is designed to capture up to 500,000 MT/year of CO2 once fully operational.
The CO2 sequestered at the Stratos site will generate carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits. The most recent agreement to purchase credits from Stratos was with Bain & Company, which said in January it would purchase 9,000 MT of credits over three years. CDR agreements are also in place with Airbus, Amazon, AT&T and Microsoft, among others, according to 1PointFive.
