Cowboy Clean Fuels has been awarded approximately $7.8m from the Wyoming Energy Authority through the Energy Matching Funds program, according to a news release.
In addition, CCF’s lead investor, Machan Investments, committed an additional $7.8m in equity capital to match and enable the WEA funding.
The WEA funds and the investor funds from Machan, totaling approximately $15.6m, will support the commercialization of CCF’s technology and the build-out of its first commercial project in Wyoming, the Triangle Unit Renewable Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage (TRECCS) project. After receiving a Class V Underground Injection Control permit from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality in late 2023, the first-of-its-kind TRECCS project is permitted and ready to sequester CO2 and produce RNG at commercial volumes.
CCF’s technology and the TRECCS project are highly consistent with the “Decarbonizing the West” initiative that Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon is championing through his leadership of the Western Governors Association. The TRECCS project is one of eight innovative projects awarded EMF by the WEA through two rounds of awards.
CCF’s field-tested process utilizes non-producing Coal Bed Methane wells and the existing infrastructure in the Powder River Basin to permanently sequester carbon dioxide and produce renewable methane through a naturally occurring biogenic process, akin to anaerobic digestion, that occurs in deep, geologic coal formations.
The CBM industry was historically a significant economic contributor to Wyoming but has entered an irreversible decline that has rendered much of the $10bn of existing energy infrastructure and the remaining CBM hydrocarbon resource uneconomic due to historically low natural gas prices.
CCF’s technology and process for the sequestration of carbon dioxide and production of renewable natural gas have the potential to restore economic viability to the area’s energy infrastructure, restore jobs, and continue to support Gillette, Johnson, and Campbell Counties, ranchers, and other landowners through payment of mineral royalties, taxes, and surface rents.
The TRECCS project represents innovative technology developed in Wyoming, that helps the state leverage existing assets and lead the way in renewable natural gas and CCUS. If fully scaled throughout the Powder River Basin, CCF’s technology could enable Wyoming to be the largest producing state for both RNG and sequestered CO2, directly benefiting Wyoming’s energy and agricultural industries, the state’s economy, and its citizens.
