DOE Invests $58 Million to Tackle Climate Change by Removing Carbon From the Atmosphere

Projects Will Support Pilot-Scale Testing of Advanced Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), with DOE’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), today announced more than $58.5 million in federal funding for 11 projects to help develop a commercially viable carbon dioxide removal industry in the United States. 

>> In Other News: Honeywell Advanced Solvent Carbon Capture Technology To Be Tested at World’s Largest Test Facility

The funding will support pilot projects and testing facilities to demonstrate and scale carbon dioxide removal technologies that reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution by removing it directly from the atmosphere.

“Alongside strong actions to lower carbon dioxide emissions from industry and power generation, large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal technology is crucial to achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate and clean energy goals,” said Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “By investing in these pilot-scale projects, DOE aims to expand our technology portfolio and drive down costs of carbon dioxide removal, while also taking the care to evaluate any impacts of this technology on our environment and local communities.”

To support an emerging and necessary carbon dioxide removal industry, in 2021 DOE launched the Carbon Negative Shot—the U.S. government’s first major carbon dioxide removal effort. Part of DOE’s larger Energy Earthshots Initiative, the Carbon Negative Shot is a Department-wide call for crosscutting innovation and commercialization of a wide range of carbon dioxide removal technologies and approaches. This Earthshot sets the portfolio-wide goal of reducing the cost of removing CO2 from the atmosphere to less than $100 per net metric ton of CO2-equivalent by 2032, together with robust measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification and secure storage. 

The selected projects will aim to support Carbon Negative Shot objectives across carbon dioxide removal pathways through integrated pilot-scale testing of advanced technologies and detailed monitoring, reporting, and verification protocols.

HFTO will manage the following project that supports small-scale biomass carbon removal and storage technology:

• Mote, Inc. (Los Angeles, California) will utilize wood waste to demonstrate a gasification system for hydrogen production coupled with CO2 capture.

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), under the purview of FECM, will manage the remaining 10 projects. Four of these projects will also support small-scale biomass carbon removal and storage technology: 

• Arbor Energy and Resources Corporation (El Segundo, California) will utilize unmarketable forest waste from land management practices, storing the inherent carbon in the biomass while producing power using a supercritical CO2 power system.

• Carba, Inc. (Minneapolis, Minnesota) will convert biomass to charcoal to demonstrate permanent CO2 storage as solid carbon underground in oxygen-free chambers.

• Carbon Lockdown Project Benefit LLC (Silver Spring, Maryland) will implement pilot biomass burial projects at three sites in the Appalachian region, demonstrating the utilization of a variety of residual biomass sources for carbon removal.

• Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) will demonstrate the injection of wood particles into the subsurface as a method for removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in geologic formations with high permanence.

Four projects will support enhanced mineralization technologies:

• Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford, California) intends to test a new enhanced weathering technology designed to enable rapid and scalable carbon dioxide removal in soil and durable storage as bicarbonate ions.

• Eion Corp (Princeton, New Jersey) plans to implement a digital measurement, reporting, and verification platform for a terrestrial enhanced weathering technology.

• Lithos Carbon (Dover, Delaware) will implement enhanced rock weathering on more than 3,000 acres of agricultural land in the southeastern United States, notably North Carolina.

• Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois) will demonstrate an innovative enhanced weathering mineralization methodology for removing atmospheric CO2 that will help Midwest farmers durably store carbon as dissolved bicarbonate.

Two projects will support testbed facilities suitable for evaluating, developing, and integrating multiple carbon dioxide removal pathways across different ecosystems, climates, and communities:

• Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) will expand their existing testbed to evaluate direct air capture systems that capture CO2 suitable for geologic storage or mineralization; grown and waste biomass carbon dioxide removal processed into biochar as an amendment to soils, low carbon concrete, and asphalt materials; and marine carbon dioxide removal pathways.

• University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (Grand Forks, North Dakota) will expand its existing test facilities to facilitate carbon dioxide removal technology transition testing from laboratory-scale concepts to integrated pilot-scale carbon dioxide removal systems.

A detailed list of the selected projects can be found here.

To support the goal of building a clean and equitable energy economy, selected project teams were required, as part of their applications, to submit a Research and Development Community Benefits Plan. These plans provide details on their commitments to quality job creation; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and benefits to disadvantaged communities as part of the President’s Justice40 Initiative.

FECM minimizes environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuels and industrial processes while working to achieve net-zero emissions across the U.S economy. Priority areas of technology work include carbon capture, carbon conversion, carbon dioxide removal, carbon dioxide transport and storage, hydrogen production with carbon management, methane emissions reduction, and critical minerals production. To learn more, visit the FECM website, sign up for FECM news announcements, and visit the NETL website. 

HFTO focuses on research, development, and demonstration of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies across multiple sectors enabling innovation, a strong domestic economy, and a clean, equitable energy future. To learn more, visit the HFTO website and learn more about the administration’s all-of-government approach to clean hydrogen, as coordinated by the Hydrogen Interagency Task Force.