DOE Invests More Than $130 Million to Lower Nation’s Carbon Pollution
ayesha iqbal
“By deploying tools to capture, remove, and store CO2 emissions, we can dramatically reduce the air pollution harming our health and intensifying extreme weather events,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The projects announced today will get us closer to achieving our climate goals while helping to revitalize local economies and deliver environmental benefits to communities too often left behind.”
Carbon Management Awards
DOE is investing $38 million in 22 projects awarded under the “Carbon Management” funding opportunity that will develop technologies to capture CO2 from utility and industrial sources or directly from the atmosphere and transport it either for permanent geologic storage or for conversion into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals. Projects will examine commercial viability and technical gaps, while also examining environmental and community impacts of the technologies.
Selected carbon dioxide removal projects will support the cost and performance goals of DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot initiative, which calls for innovation in pathways that will capture CO2 from the atmosphere and permanently store it at meaningful scales for less than $100/net metric ton of CO2-equivalent. CO2 storage projects announced today under this FOA will look specifically at assessing potential resources for mineral carbon storage—where the CO2 becomes permanently stored as a solid mineral through a chemical reaction. A detailed list of the selected carbon management projects is described below: ⬇️
PROJECT SELECTIONS FOR FOA 2614: CARBON MANAGEMENT
AOI-2A – Carbon Dioxide Removal R&D: Bench-Scale Testing of Structured Material Systems, or Component Designs for Optimized Direct Air Capture
Advanced Engineered Structures for High Performance Direct Air Capture System – TDA Research, Inc. (Wheat Ridge, Colorado), in partnership with GE Research, plans to develop a structured sorbent cell that can be economically produced at large-scale. The thickness of the sorbent layer and the geometry will be optimized to reduce the pressure drop and improve the heat transfer rate, thereby increasing the CO2 productivity.
DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $474,000
Total Value: $1,974,000
Advancing a Low-Temperature, Low-Cost Direct Air Capture System Based on Organic Chemistry – Holocene Climate Corporation (San Francisco, California) plans to partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to conduct bench-scale testing of a new optimized direct air capture system using amino acids and guanidine compounds, a chemical process invented at ORNL. Holocene aims to use ORNL’s chemistry to further develop and deploy the technology on a commercial scale.
DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $420,000
Total Value: $1,920,000
Amine Infused ePTFE/SiO2 Laminate Structured Sorbents as an Advanced Direct Air Capture System – Georgia Tech Research Corporation (Atlanta, Georgia) intends to develop novel CO2 sorbent contactors and direct air capture process technologies, using polyethyleneimine-infused expanded polytetrafluoroethylene/silica laminate sheets.
DOE Funding: $1,326,312
Non-DOE Funding: $332,105
Total Value: $1,658,417
Bench-Scale Development of Ionic Liquid Catalyzed High-Capacity Structured Sorbents – Susteon Inc. (Cary, North Carolina) plans to develop a high-capacity structured direct air capture sorbent material system to make significant progress towards reaching DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot target of less than $100/net tonne of CO2 removed.
DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $375,000
Total Value: $1,875,000
AOI-2B – Carbon Dioxide Removal R&D: Bench-Scale Testing of Optimized Direct Air Capture Integrated Processes
3D Printed Engineered Structures for High Performance Direct Air Capture System – TDA Research, Inc. (Wheat Ridge, Colorado), in partnership with Schlumberger and Missouri University of Science and Technology, intends to develop a structured sorbent cell that can be economically produced at large-scale. The primary focus of the project will be to build the structured sorbent cell/unit with the desired mass and heat transfer capability.
DOE Funding: $2,999,956
Non-DOE Funding: $750,000
Total Value: $3,749,956
An Integrated and Continuous Bench-Scale Passive DAC Demonstration – Research Triangle Institute (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), in partnership with Creare and GE Research, intends to design, build and test an integrated bench-scale contactor process for continuous direct air capture of CO2.
DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,000
Total Value: $3,750,000
Integrated Bench-Scale Testing of a Structured Sorbent for Direct Air Capture – Susteon Inc. (Cary, North Carolina) will develop and test an integrated bench-scale direct air capture prototype test unit using a novel structured sorbent with an ultimate cost target of <$100/ton CO2 captured, based on an inexpensive sodium carbonate-based sorbent dispersed on a porous alumina support.
DOE Funding: $3,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $750,000
Total Value: $3,750,000
Negative-Emissions Enabled Direct Air Capture with Coupled Electro-Production of Hydrogen at 5 kg-per-hour Scale – University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, Kentucky) intends to develop an intensified and cost-effective net-negative emissions process for the direct air capture of CO2 at a 5 kg-per-hour scale. The process builds upon the University’s technology on electrochemically regenerated hydroxide solvent for direct air capture and hydrogen co-production. It includes further integration with renewable power from solar photovoltaics to decouple the direct air capture process from secondary carbon emissions and provide additional grid-management options by varying the output of electricity and hydrogen/CO2.
DOE Funding: $2,999,681
Non-DOE Funding: $749,943
Total Value: $3,749,624
Spiral-Wound Aerogel Adsorbent Polymers for Direct Air CO2 Capture (SWAAP) – Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (PARC) (Palo Alto, California), in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Xerox Research Centre of Canada, will develop a Spiral-Wound Aerogel Adsorbent Polymer to integrate PARC’s structured adsorbent into a benchtop direct air capture process.
DOE Funding: $2,999,845
Non-DOE Funding: $749,961
Total Value: $3,749,806
AOI-2C – Initial Engineering Design Studies for Advanced Carbon Capture Systems at Existing Power Plant Facilities Utilizing Sustainably-Sourced Biomass
Filer City BiCRS Net-Negative Study – CMS Enterprises Company (Jackson, Michigan) intends to team up with ION Clean Energy, Inc. (ION) and Sargent & Lundy LLC, to execute an initial design engineering study. The purpose of this study is to complete the initial design and develop costing to retrofit the Filer Plant in Filer City, Michigan, with the ability to fire 100% sustainably sourced biomass and implement ION’s post-combustion CO2 capture technology.
DOE Funding: $1,416,224
Non-DOE Funding: $354,056
Total Value: $1,770,280
AOI-2E – Initial Engineering Design Studies for Advanced Carbon Capture Systems at Existing Iron and Steel, Cement and Lime, or Pulp and Paper Plants Utilizing Sustainably-Sourced Biomass
Net-Zero Lime Kiln and Carbon Removal Facility – Electricore, Inc. (Valencia, California) plans to execute and complete the initial design of a commercial-scale, advanced carbon capture system that separates CO2 with at least 95% capture efficiency from process streams at the Carmeuse Kentucky lime plant. The plant will be retrofitted to utilize sustainably sourced biomass alone or in combination with natural gas, and/or coal, with at least 20-year available feedstock supply and remaining asset life.
DOE Funding: $1,500,000
Non-DOE Funding: $375,000
Total Value: $1,875,000
AOI-4 CAPTURE STORAGE TECHNOLOGY
Distributed Mafic Rock Resources for CO2 Mineralization in Arizona – Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona) plans to explore surface mafic rocks distributed across four volcanic fields in Arizona as a permanent and safe CO2 sink. A Mafic Materials Resource Inventory will be created that combines existing rock physical, chemical, and hydrologic data with new mapping and a sample collection of young scoria (cinder) cones and lava flows.
DOE Funding: $832,008
Non-DOE Funding: $215,637
Total Value: $1,047,645
Regional Resource Assessment for CO2 Storage in New Mexico and Surrounding Areas: Identification, Characterization and Evaluation of in-situ Mineralization Site/Complex – New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, New Mexico) intends to identify and access the statewide resources for potential CO2 storage via a mineralization process, including basalt formations and mining wastes (termed as resource rock), and characterize the targeted storage site/complex to provide the insights on its storage capacity evaluation.
DOE Funding: $999,878
Non-DOE Funding: $250,735
Total Value: $1,250,613
Resource Assessment for Carbon Dioxide Storage via Accelerated Carbonation Reaction with Recycled Concrete Aggregates – Board of Regents, University of Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska) intends to explore a significant opportunity to permanently store CO2 as mineral carbonates and silica by reacting with calcium hydroxide and calcium silicate hydrate in the residual mortar adhered to recycled concrete aggregates for less than 24 hours.
DOE Funding: $805,137
Non-DOE Funding: $201,313
Total Value: $1,006,450
Resource Assessment of Geological Formations and Mine Waste for Carbon Dioxide Mineralization in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Virginia) plans to provide a thorough resource assessment of natural materials and industrial and mine wastes to be used in both in-situ and ex-situ CO2 mineralization processes in the Mid-Atlantic Region to store large amounts of CO2. The focus is to assess the reactivity of mafic and ultramafic formations and crushed mine and industrial wastes with CO2 and their post-mineralization physical properties.
DOE Funding: $999,428
Non-DOE Funding: $249,850
Total Value: $1,249,278
Resource Assessment of Industrial Wastes for CO2 Mineralization – University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, North Dakota) plans to characterize the chemical and physical attributes of industrial residues—such as cement kiln dust, coal ash, sulfur scrubber residues, biomass processing residues, recycled concrete residues, iron and steel slag, and copper slag—and conduct laboratory-scale tests to determine their potential and practical CO2 storage capacity. The project will also assess the applications and economic value of the formed products and the overall carbon lifecycle implications.
DOE Funding: $1,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $250,000
Total Value: $1,250,000
Subsurface Carbon Mineralization Resources in Hawaiian Basalt – University of Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii) plans to determine whether the submerged flanks of extinct Hawaiian volcanoes can be used to effectively mineralize captured anthropogenic CO2. The project will assess the CO2 injection and mineralization potential of northeast Hawaii Island’s subsurface basalt formations.
DOE Funding: $1,000,000
Non-DOE Funding: $250,000
Total Value: $1,250,000
Subsurface Mafic and Ultramafic Resource Assessment for Carbon Mineralization in the United States – University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas), in collaboration with Columbia University, intends to conduct a resource assessment of mafic and ultramafic bodies in the subsurface of the United States to identify permanent CO2 storage opportunities. Mafic and ultramafic rocks contain high concentrations of cations that can react with CO2 to form carbonate minerals and permanently sequester CO2 in mineral form.
DOE Funding: $992,636
Non-DOE Funding: $280,488
Total Value: $1,273,124
Source: Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management