Battelle, Climeworks, Heirloom Carbon, Gulf Coast Sequestration Bid on Direct Air Capture Hub for Department of Energy

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Battelle and a team of leading technology developers have submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs program. The Project Cypress DAC Hub will advance the commercialization of Direct Air Capture and Storage (DAC+S), an innovative technology powered by renewable energy that verifiably removes carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere, helping cement the United States as a global leader in DAC+S deployment and provide benefits to the state of Louisiana.

>> Additional Reading: CarbonCapture Inc. Announces Five Megaton Direct Air Capture and Storage Project in Wyoming

Battelle will serve as the prime recipient to manage the project, and will collaborate with a range of industry-leading partners—including Direct Air Capture technology providers Climeworks and Heirloom — to bring their global expertise to this first-of-its-kind initiative. The Hub is proposed for a site in southwest Louisiana, where carbon captured from the ambient air would be safely and permanently stored underground by leading geologic storage company Gulf Coast Sequestration, thereby removing it from the atmosphere.

In addition to the technical goals of the Hub, Project Cypress will make robust investments in the local community and region by creating a host of new jobs throughout the design, construction, and operation of the project. Beyond discussions with workforce development organizations already under way, a core component of Project Cypress will be an active collaboration with a broad cross-section of community stakeholders ranging from business groups and housing advocates to job training teams and new energy advocates. This two-way dialogue will ensure that the community is intimately involved in shaping the characteristics and deployment of the project in order to maximize its benefits to the economy, the environment, and the needs of local neighbors.

“This is the kind of project we’ve been working towards for decades and fits with our overall climate focus,” said Battelle Energy and Resilience Division Manager Shawn Bennett. “Direct Air Capture technology is an important bridge to a future that greatly reduces the amount of legacy carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. But in addition to that, Project Cypress will be developed to the benefit of the local community, maximizing local job opportunities for the energy transition.’’

“Climeworks is delighted to collaborate with Battelle, to be part of a joint project with Heirloom and GCS and is looking forward to deepening the relationship with the other project stakeholders on the journey to realize Project Cypress,” said Dirk Nuber, Chief of Project Development at Climeworks. “Uniting Climeworks’ experience in Direct Air Capture combined with storage and Battelle’s decades-long experience in critical services and large project leadership is an exciting opportunity to bring high-quality carbon removal to Louisiana, and beyond.”

“Heirloom is honored to be part of Project Cypress. We have had very promising early conversations with community leaders in the area—which has long led the world in energy jobs, and now is at the precipice of pioneering the frontier of new clean tech jobs,” said Heirloom Head of Communications Max Scholten. “We believe that Project Cypress will form the blueprint for what highly scalable, equitable and just deployments of Direct Air Capture technologies could look like going forward."

By siting Project Cypress in a region with a long history of fossil fuel production and related industrial activity, project developers intend to leverage the existing workforce that has transferable skillsets to construct and operate Project Cypress. This will bring fossil energy employees into the energy transition and jobs to southwest Louisiana. The Hub will combine leading DAC technologies and one of the most mature Class VI well applications for saline storage in the Gulf Coast region.

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries. For more information, visit www.battelle.org.

About Climeworks

Climeworks empowers people and companies to fight climate change by offering carbon dioxide removal as a service via direct air capture technology.

Climeworks is a global leader in direct air capture (DAC), with the world’s largest facility operated in combination with storage currently in operation, and a team of 300 Climeworkers determined to contribute to a net-zero future. Climeworks’ growing customer base includes over 160 companies, including Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, and BCG, as well as more than 18,000 individual Climate Pioneers.

Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher in 2009, Climeworks is on a journey to climate impact at scale. To do so, we strive to inspire 1 billion people to act and remove CO2 from the air.

About Heirloom

Heirloom builds low-cost Direct Air Capture technology that will permanently remove CO2 at a billion-ton scale. Their technology rapidly accelerates the natural ability of minerals to absorb CO2 from the air from a timespan of years to days. Heirloom has the only operating Direct Air Capture facility in North America, and its customers are the world’s biggest buyers of carbon removal including Microsoft, Stripe, Klarna, Shopify and more. Heirloom is funded by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital Management, Ahren Innovation Capital, Prelude Capital, Lowercarbon Capital and others. For more see www.heirloomcarbon.com

For inquiries relating to Heirloom, please reach out to press@heirloomcarbon.com.

About GCS

Gulf Coast Sequestration (GCS) is the leading carbon sequestration solution in the United States, partnering with industrial customers to capture CO₂ and safely contain it underground.

Initially focused on the industrial corridor between southwest Louisiana and Texas, GCS expects to be the first operational carbon storage hub on the Gulf Coast. With an anticipated launch date in 2024, the hub will remove 10 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually from the atmosphere.

More information about GCS is online at www.gcscarbon.com.