Direct air capture provider CarbonCapture Inc is partnering with Frontier Carbon Solutions to develop a project in Wyoming to try to remove five million tonnes of atmospheric CO2 annually by 2030.
The company said passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, along with a “proliferation of companies” seeking carbon removal credits, and low-cost technology, offers the ingredients to scale direct air capture (DAC).
The first DAC modules could be installed by the end of 2023 with capacity added as modules are built. A first-stage goal is to store 10,000 tonnes per year during 2023-24.
Storage would grow to an estimated 200,000 tonnes per year by 2025, 1 mega-tonne a year by 2027, and 5 megatonnes a year by 2030.
Wyoming was selected as the project’s location due to the availability of renewable and zero-carbon energy sources as well as a favorable regulatory and operating environment for carbon storage.
The site is designed to use Class VI wells for permanent storage. Regulatory approval is needed before injection in saline aquifers can start.
The partnership, named Project Bison, would use CarbonCapture’s DAC modules atop Frontier’s CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure. Sales have begun, with CO2 (by TIME) and Cloverly reportedly supporting the project as core partners.
A federal interagency working group has designated parts of Wyoming as some of the nation’s most impacted communities from coal mine and power plant closures.
Wyoming’s governor Mark Gordon said the state offers suitable CO2 storage geology and a “broad-based energy strategy” that includes CO2 sequestration hubs.
