Climeworks will partner with CapturePoint Solutions LLC for the transport and storage of CO2 captured at Climeworks’ facility in Southwest Louisiana. The partnership reflects a critical step forward in realizing what will be a million-ton direct air capture (DAC) Hub, according to a news release.
CapturePoint will take the captured carbon dioxide from Climeworks’ Calcasieu Parish-based DAC facility and transport it for permanent deep underground storage in Class VI wells at CapturePoint’s Central Louisiana Regional Carbon Storage Hub (CENLA Hub) in Vernon and Rapides Parishes. The CENLA Hub is one of the largest onshore deep underground carbon storage centers under development in the United States with the capacity to permanently secure millions of tons of CO2.
“Louisiana is poised to take a leading position in building up the DAC industry here in the United States,” says Climeworks Chief Project Development Officer, Daniel Nathan. “Not only does the porous subsurface in the area offer ideal geologic conditions for safe and permanent storage of carbon dioxide, the state boasts an experienced workforce with the expertise needed to develop and build large-scale projects like DAC. We’re excited to share the momentum of this next step forward with CapturePoint.”
Climeworks’ flagship plant in Iceland, Orca, is the world’s first commercial direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) facility. In May of this year, Climeworks opened Mammoth, its second and largest commercial DAC+S plant, which is ten times larger than its predecessor.
“Climeworks is pioneering commercial scale Direct Air Capture projects, and the team at CapturePoint is excited to ensure that the CO2 their Project Cypress facility captures from the atmosphere of southwestern Louisiana is permanently secured deep underground in our Central Louisiana Regional Carbon Storage Hub,” said Tracy Evans, CEO of CapturePoint. “The uniquely reliable geology of the CENLA Hub creates the potential for one of the safest and largest carbon management sites in the United States, attracting leading-edge companies like Climeworks that are driving the next generation economy of Louisiana.”
The Project Cypress Southwest Hub will be built out in two stages. The first is projected to have a nameplate capacity of approximately 300,000 metric tons of CO2 per year and the second will have a projected capacity of one megaton – or one million tons. Climeworks’ portion of the Project Cypress DAC Hub will also usher in economic incentives for Southwest Louisiana.
Project Cypress is part of the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs program. With an initial award of more than $50 million from OCED out of the total federal cost share of up to $550 million, Project Cypress partners are mobilizing an additional $51 million in private investment in this initial phase of the project.
