The Carbon Corner - Issue #14

Welcome back to another week of The Carbon Corner. This week we are serving up something special - new funding and program initiatives announced by the DOE!

Things are picking up in the space, and as always, we are here to discuss it. We have migrated this newsletter to ConvertKit from the Revue platform, so if you have any issues with delivery, please let us know at info@schaperintl.com.

We hope you enjoy this Carbon Corner holiday issue brought to by Schaper Energy Consulting.

Competitive Power Ventures to Build CCUS Facility in West Virginia

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) has announced their plan to build a carbon capture generation facility in Doddridge County, West Virginia. This venture, the CPV Shay Energy Center, will cost $3 billion and utilize carbon capture technology at a ~1,800 MW combined-cycle natural gas power station.

The company is ready to move forward with the permitting process after receiving approval of payment from the Doddridge County Commission and the Doddridge County Board of Education. The county heavily approves of the "forward-thinking" company and project and anticipates that 2,000 jobs will be created due to the construction and operation of the endeavor. The project will eventually power nearly 2 million homes and businesses in the West Virginia region and become a key player in the decarbonization movement.

This announcement comes on the heels of other CCUS projects linked to combined-cycle gas generation, a theme we expect will be more prevalent in the coming months and years.

Denbury to Develop CO2 Sequestration Site on Weyerhaeuser Land

This week, Denbury leased 16,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser-owned subsurface pore space in Mississippi. This land, located primarily in Simpson and Copiah Counties, will be used as a possible CO2 sequestration site by Denbury. The unique component of this project: all 16,000 surface acres are presently used by Weyerhaeuser for timber production.

If all goes according to estimation, the site could hold about 275 million metric tonnes of carbon. To confirm this, the company plans to begin stratigraphic well testing on-site within the next year. This would be followed by Class VI permitting actions through the U.S. Environmental Project Agency.

Nick Wood, Denbury's Senior Vice President of CCUS, commented, "Our agreement with Weyerhaeuser is a significant step in building out the Gulf Coast's leading CO2 transportation and sequestration network."

This activity builds on Denbury's historical presence in the upstream oil and gas space as an operator of large CO2-EOR floods and an industry-leading CO2 pipeline network.

DOE to Grant $20M Budget for Regional CCUS Projects

This week, The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced a $20 million funding program that will support regional projects involving CCUS.

Currently, the FECM supports four regional projects throughout the U.S. This funding will allow the DOE to double down on existing ventures and provide funding availability for furute projects. The idea behind regional projects is to provide stakeholders with the necessary resources to facilitate the further development of large-scale carbon capture projects in those areas.

When speaking on this project, Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, stated, "As we continue to ramp up our investments to decarbonize the nation’s most energy and emissions intensive sectors like power generation and heavy industry, we are also conducting meaningful engagement with local communities and stakeholders that may be impacted by these investments. The funding announced today will support that engagement by establishing an effective mechanism for developing and providing technical assistance specific to regions where large-scale carbon management hubs are expected to emerge."

With news like this, you can expect more projects on the horizon. We will continue to keep a pulse on future awards under this program.

The Fight to Further CO2 Removal

Funding from President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is being put to use with four new programs designed to help further the carbon capture and removal industry. The budget for these programs is $3.7 billion, and intend to further push the country towards achieving the net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goal by 2050.

Below are the direct details provided on Energy.gov covering the new programs announced by the DOE this week:
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• "Direct Air Capture Commercial and Pre-Commercial Prize – DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) is announcing the Direct Air Capture Prize for support and prize awards totaling $115 million to promote diverse approaches to direct air capture. The Direct Air Capture Pre-Commercial Prize provides up to $15 million in prizes to incubate and accelerate research and development of breakthrough direct air capture technologies. The Direct Air Capture Commercial Prize provides up to $100 million in prizes to qualified direct air capture facilities for capturing CO2 from the atmosphere. Read the full Direct Air Capture Prize Competitions announcement here.
• Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs – DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), in partnership with FECM, is announcing the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program. DOE will invest $3.5 billion to develop four domestic regional direct air capture hubs, each of which will demonstrate a direct air capture technology or suite of technologies at commercial scale with the potential for capturing at least 1 million metric tons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere and storing that CO2 permanently in a geologic formation or through its conversion into products. The first funding opportunity announcement under this program released today makes available more than $1.2 billion to begin the process for conceptualizing, designing, planning, constructing, and operating direct air capture hubs, with additional opportunities expected to follow in the coming years. Read the full funding opportunity announcement here.
• Carbon Utilization Procurement Grants – FECM will manage the Carbon Utilization Procurement Grants Program, which will provide grants to states, local governments, and public utilities to support the commercialization of technologies that reduce carbon emissions while also procuring and using commercial or industrial products developed from captured carbon emissions. The Notice of Intent released today informs stakeholders of DOE’s intent to announce the first FOA issuance, which will provide grants totaling up to $100 million. Read the Notice of Intent here.
• Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) -– DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), in partnership with FECM, will issue a Lab Call to accelerate commercialization of carbon dioxide removal technologies, including direct air capture, by advancing measurement, reporting, and verification best practices and capabilities. OTT anticipates awarding $15 million to projects led by DOE National Laboratories, plants, and sites, and supported by diverse industry partnerships spanning the emerging carbon dioxide removal sector. Visit OTT’s TCF Lab Call webpage here."

Chevron to Lead Giving in $318 Million Svante Investment

Chevron has partnered with Svante, a carbon solution management company, by leading the investment into their Series E fundraising round, which totals to $318 million. These funds will be used to enhance Svante's carbon capture technology.

Since Svante's inception in 2007, the company has been developing CCUS technology commercially. Their technology has worked to advance industrial decarbonization activities in fields such as hydrogen, pulp and paper, lime, cement, steel, aluminum, and chemicals. Of course, the size and cost of installing such technology is costly, which is why this fundraising effort is so important.

Plans are already underway, with initial testing to be conducted later this month at Chevron's Kern River facility in San Joaquin Valley, California.

Chris Powers, vice president of CCUS with CNE, spoke on the partnership, saying, "We are advancing a full value chain carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) business and believe Svante is poised to be a leader in enabling carbon capture solutions. Innovation is key to enabling these types of breakthrough technologies and lower carbon solutions, and we look forward to applying our experience and expertise to help drive this effort forward."

We have seen an increase in major oil and gas companies taking equity stakes in growing CO2 removal businesses. Most have preferred to partner with existing companies who are already leading the effort to permit projects, as opposed to seeking their own approvals. We believe this is driven by a desire to show progress to the public and because the stratgy provides speed to market in this important arena.

Partnership Between Shell Catalysts & Technologies and Technology Centre Mongstad to Excel CCS Technology Globally

Shell Catalysts & Technologies and Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) have entered into an agreement that may advance two Shell CCUS systems to be utilized globally.

Beginning in January 2023, Shell's CANSOLV CO2 Capture System and ADIP ULTRA will be tested at TCM facilities in Norway. The project will last five months and determine the technologies' quality and potential application for other CCS projects worldwide.

Shell Catalysts & Technologies' VP of Decarbonisation Technologies, Nick Flinn, says: "We are very pleased to continue using TCM's excellent facilities and expertise. The purpose of the next campaign is to make a final test and verification of this upgraded solvent that will be introduced to the market."

That all for this week’s edition! Thanks for joining us to catch up on the latest happenings in the Carbon Capture & Sequestration space.

Come visit us at https://schaperintl.com to find out more about partnering with us to advance your carbon capture site development or email us at info@schaperintl.com for more information.

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