A new direct air capture (DAC) facility, the first large-scale plant of its kind in Europe, is set to be built in North East Scotland.

The plant has been developed to permanently remove between 500,000 and 1,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the earth's atmosphere every year.

DAC technology draws in atmospheric air, then extracts the carbon dioxide from it using a series of chemical reactions, and returns the rest of the air to the environment. The carbon dioxide is converted into a pure, compressed form that can then be stored underground or reused. It works on the same premise as photosynthesis that plants and trees carry out every day. The plant used in DAC allows this process to be undertaken a lot faster with a smaller land footprint.

Storegga who are running the project, in conjunction with Carbon Engineering who are providing the DAC, hope the facility will be operational by 2026.

Chief Executive Officer of Storegga, Nick Cooper, said: "DAC technology is critical to remove large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to meet our climate goals. The development of a DAC facility in the UK will put our country on the map as being at the forefront of net negative technologies and the technology will enable hard to abate sectors create plans to reach net zero emissions."