Decarbon Debrief: DOE Funds Gulf Coast DAC Projects
Department of Energy announces winners for carbon capture funding.
🚨 The Lead
The top story of the week.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Up To $1.2 Billion For Nation’s First Direct Air Capture Demonstrations in Texas and Louisiana
President Biden's Investing in America agenda has announced up to $1.2 billion to advance the development of two commercial-scale direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana. These projects are the first of this scale in the United States and represent the initial selections from the President's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs program. The announcement made today is the world's greatest investment in engineered carbon removal in history, with each Hub eventually removing more than 250 times more carbon dioxide than the largest DAC facility presently in operation.
The two DAC Hubs that have been chosen for award discussions today will contribute to more conclusive proof of the feasibility of large-scale atmospheric CO2 capture and storage. Project Cypress (Calcasieu Parish, LA) and South Texas DAC Hub (Kleberg County, TX) are two examples of initiatives that seek to permanently store more than 1 million metric tons of atmospheric CO2 underground each year. The projects are anticipated to generate between 2,300 and 2,500 jobs in each hub and support the President's Justice40 Initiative, which aims for 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments.
Project Cypress: Team of Battelle, Climeworks, Heirloom Selected for Direct Air Capture Hub
The United States has issued Notifications of Selection to Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom. Department of Energy (DOE) for a proposal for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act's Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs initiative. The Project Cypress DAC Hub, located in Southwest Louisiana, is intended to advance the commercialization of Direct Air Capture and Storage (DAC+S), an innovative renewable energy-powered technology that will verifiably remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, safely store it underground, and generate advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States to further the country's climate goals. The project's primary contractor is Battelle, with a start date of late 2023.
Project Cypress in Louisiana, a state with a long history as an energy pioneer, gives access to local talent and experience critical to expanding carbon removal and storage technologies. Gulf Coast Sequestration, a local carbon storage firm, will collaborate with Project Cypress to store collected CO2, which is already in the advanced stages of getting Class VI well permit.
Carbon capture ushers Louisiana into a new age of energy and manufacturing dominance, encouraging job growth and economic development. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards thanked Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom for choosing Southwest Louisiana for Project Cypress and supporting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Project Selections for FOA 2735: Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs – Topic Area 1 (Feasibility) and Topic Area 2 (Design)
The Florida Regional DAC Hub seeks to promote DAC technology for capturing and storing CO2 underground in the Tuscaloosa Group (thick, permeable saline aquifers 4,920 to 7,050 feet deep), while also cultivating collaborative relationships with green energy providers, CO2 transportation networks, and industrial companies. DOE Funding: $2,778,670, Total Value: $3,570,064
Fervo Energy Company intends to open the Red Rocks DAC Hub in southwest Utah, with an emphasis on geothermal energy-driven carbon capture and sequestration. The center hopes to capture and store up to 100 million tons of CO2 each year. DOE Funding: $2,866,270, Total Value: $3,585,653
General Electric, GE Research is planning a feasibility study for a Houston Area DAC Hub that will use sustainable energy sources like renewable or nuclear energy. The objective is to build a regional hub capable of extracting one million metric tons of CO2 per year and reusing it to create value-added goods. DOE Funding: $2,554,247, Total Value: $3,317,074
The Rocky Mountain Institute in Basalt, Colorado, intends to construct the Ankeron Carbon Management Hub in the Pacific Northwest. The hub will use verified technologies from Heirloom, Removr, and Sustaera, as well as Carbfix's knowledge and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's experience. DOE Funding: $2,999,754, Total Value: $4,134,753
Read about all the selections here.
Todd’s Take:
Funding the DAC demonstrations in Louisiana and Texas brings credibility to a region of energy workers prepared to bring scale to carbon management. Scale, skills, and experience are in the Gulf Coast to make this new industry a reality while meeting the governments climate pledges.
We will look back at this $1.2 Billion in funding as a critical milestone that enables the CO2 sequestration and utilization markets for Gulf Coast of the US. Other companies are creating the market as well and more projects will help this new market flourish.
✨ This Week in Decarbonization
Highlights from the week’s most popular stories in industrial decarbonization.
📢 Biden-Harris Administration Announce Up To $1.2 Billion For Nation’s First Direct Air Capture Demonstrations in Texas and Louisiana
🌊 Matheson Signs Oxygen Supply Contract for 1PointFive's DAC Plant
🛑 North Dakota regulator rejects Summit Carbon Solutions carbon pipeline application
🏭 Babcock & Wilcox, General Hydrogen Corp. Agree to Key Terms for Sale of Carbon-Negative Hydrogen and CO2 Produced from Biomass at Louisiana Plant
☁️ Team of Battelle, Climeworks, Heirloom Receive Notification of Selection on Direct Air Capture Hub from U.S. Department of Energy
🌱 Newlight Completes US$125M In New Equity Round Led by GenZero
⚡ Jacobs Receives $450 Million US Environmental Protection Agency Contract
🏢 Honeywell Expands Capability to Enable Industrial Customers to Measure and Manage Indirect Greenhouse Gas Emissions
☁️ Capture This CO2
A single carbon capture or hydrogen project in industrial decarbonization.
Mason City Biorefinery CCS
🏭 Operator: Summit Carbon Solutions
📌 Location: Midwest
⛽ Industry: Ethanol Production
🦺 Project Status: Advanced Development
🌱 Project Type: Commercial
The Mason City Biorefinery CCS project aims to capture CO2 emissions produced during the biofuel manufacturing operations at the biorefinery. The initiative catches a considerable amount of these emissions before they are discharged into the atmosphere using modern carbon capture equipment. The collected CO2 is subsequently transported and securely stored in deep underground geological formations, assuring long-term isolation from the atmosphere.
Summit Carbon Solutions has made another step forward in its carbon capture and storage project by submitting a pipeline permit application to the Iowa Utilities Board. Summit's project will link ethanol biorefineries in five upper Midwest states: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, with the main section of the project, comprising 12 ethanol biorefineries and approximately 680 miles of carbon dioxide pipeline, located in Iowa.
Source: Summit Carbon Solutions
🌍 Elsewhere
Highlights from research, data, or media partners covering the Energy Transition.
We are now entering the era of the green economy and the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources. While wind and solar power are making headlines, a more viable long-term green energy source is already available which is hydrogen.
This is already happening on a limited scale in Canada, where a hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint train, made by the French company Alstom, is presently performing a three-month demonstration in Quebec. The performance of the train, which can carry 120 passengers, is comparable to that of traditional diesel engines.
The Coradia iLint train produces only water vapor, making it quieter for passengers and others close, by but providing equivalent acceleration and braking capability to a normal diesel train. The Coradia iLint is powered by renewable hydrogen manufactured in Quebec City by Harnois Énergies.
That's it for this week. If you'd like to dive into the data a little more with me, hit reply.