No carbon left behind: WyoTCH Hub
Carbon Solutions is set to lead a $3.4M project called WyoTCH Hub as part of the DOE Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Large-Scale Storage Facilities and Regional Carbon Management Hubs.
The project—titled Project WyoTCH: Developing a Roadmap for a Sustainable Carbon, or WyoTCH Hub for short—will develop a Roadmap for how to design a collaborative, sustainable carbon management hub, including the integrated infrastructure and workforce capacity necessary to capture, transport, store, and utilize millions of tonnes of CO2 each year. The Roadmap will focus on key areas needed to design a sustainable carbon hub that can be replicated around the US, including developing a robust business case, a core emphasis on public engagement, workforce development including a pilot tribal training program, and resilient CCS infrastructure designs. The project will emphasize the concept of no carbon left behind, the idea that we cannot meet our net-zero economy challenges by focusing only on low-hanging fruit opportunities and instead we need to develop forward-looking plans that manage our carbon now and into the future.
WyoTCH Hub and its sister project WyoTCH Pipeline (also led by Carbon Solutions) are the first steps of developing Project WyoTCH, an ambitious plan to develop the world’s largest carbon-management hub in Wyoming to support Wyoming’s carbon-negative goal. Phase I would capture, transport, and store between 10 and 25 million tonnes a year of CO2 (25 MtCO2/yr)—the first five years of operation, not including construction—from a diverse range of around 30 facilities across the southern half of Wyoming. Phase II would rise to as much as 45 MtCO2/yr from around 60 facilities across Wyoming, and even higher when including surrounding states such as the memorandum of understanding between Wyoming and Colorado interstate collaboration on the development of carbon capture technologies
The WyoTCH Hub Roadmap will serve as (1) the planning document to make Project WyoTCH a reality, including raising capital to fund the ultimate project, and (2) a blueprint or set of lessons learned for how other development teams can form their open-access carbon hubs across the nation. The Roadmap will visualize and analyze the hundreds/thousands of infrastructure scenarios, identifying key thresholds for policies, investments, and risk and how these get wrapped up in developing a business case. Refining these scenarios will involve direct feedback from communities through active engagement with key stakeholder groups.
The WyoTCH Hub technical partners include the University of Wyoming, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and ENTECH Strategies. The project is supported by a commercial team including Carbonvert Inc., Glenrock Energy, LLC, Kanata America, Inc., and Live Oak Environmental, LLC.
For more information, take a look at the Regional Carbon Management Hubs webpage including a description of all the Regional Carbon Management awards.
Technical Team
About Carbon Solutions
Carbon Solutions is a mission-driven, fast-growing company that addresses low-carbon energy challenges through R&D, consulting and services, and software development. Energy applications include CO2 capture and storage (CCS), direct air capture (DAC), hydrogen, geothermal energy, wind energy, energy storage, and energy equity and environmental justice. The company uses a range of data analytics and other technical approaches including infrastructure optimization, GIScience, life cycle assessment (LCA), technoeconomic assessment (TEA), reservoir simulation, machine learning, and policy analysis. For more information, visit www.carbonsolutionsllc.com.
About the University of Wyoming
collaborates with stakeholders at the state, national, and international levels to advance energy technologies and policies to grow and support Wyoming’s robust energy sector. The focus is energy-driven economic development for the state of Wyoming. This singular objective determines how it allocates its resources and which projects it undertakes. For more information, visit https://www.uwyo.edu.
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
The Computational Earth Science Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory develops and applies a range of high-performance computational methods and software tools to Earth science projects in support of environmental health, cleaner energy, and national security. They combine basic and applied research to develop novel and integrated modeling and analysis platforms, including high-performance modeling, to address practical problems for federal and industrial agencies. They also support clean energy, carbon sequestration, sustainable unconventional fossil resource extraction, subsurface environment remediation and management, surface and subsurface hydrology, and geothermal energy. For more information, visit https://organizations.lanl.gov/cels/ees-division/computational-earth-science.
About ENTECH Strategies
ENTECH Strategies (“ENTECH”) is an energy technology and policy consulting firm that has pioneered community engagement, workforce development, and training programs in the field of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). In 2004, ENTECH founded and continues to direct the U.S. Department of Energy’s Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS) program and career network (~650 people). The company has provided strategic support to DOE’s CCUS programs (domestic and international) since the late 1990s, led education and outreach for the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership (2003-2008), and is currently developing training programs for the Federal Interagency Working Group on CCUS. ENTECH also advises clients on business development strategies and R&D partnerships.
Commercial Team
About Carbonvert
Carbonvert Inc. (“Carbonvert”) is a carbon capture and storage project development and finance company that simplifies decarbonization for industrial clients. Senior leadership at Carbonvert has extensive experience with large-scale CO2 projects and has designed, secured environmental and CO2 storage permits, and completed and operated large-scale carbon capture, transportation, and storage projects notably Bayou Bend CCS in Southeast Texas, Quest CCS in Alberta, Canada, and In Salah in Algeria. For more information, visit www.carbonvert.com.
About Glenrock Energy
Glenrock Energy, LLC (“Glenrock”) is a Casper, Wyoming-based carbon management and upstream energy company. Glenrock is developing carbon capture and clean ammonia-related energy transition projects. Glenrock also owns and operates mineral properties in the Powder River Basin that are being developed as part of a large carbon storage hub with low-carbon oil and geological sequestration CO2 storage options. For more information, visit www.glenrockpetroleum.com.
About Kanata America
Kanata America Inc., based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kanata Clean Power & Climate Technologies Corp. (“Kanata”) an Alberta corporation. Kanata is a developer, builder, owner, and operator of decarbonization intellectual property and infrastructure assets. Kanata’s primary investor is Frog Lake First Nations #121 & #122, an Alberta-based Treaty Six First Nation. Kanata’s core mission is to be a leader in economic reconciliation through the co-development of Net Zero and Net Negative decarbonization infrastructure with interested Tribal and First Nations. For more information, visit www.kanataclean.com.
About Live Oak Environmental
Live Oak Environmental is a carbon management-focused operating company dedicated to solving the complexities of large-scale carbon dioxide sequestration projects. Live Oak brings the expertise of delivering geological identification, land acquisition, UIC permitting, as well as complete life cycle carbon management to our partners. We align our projects with industry leaders to ensure carbon-neutral projects are efficiently and economically operated. Live Oak’s alignment and dedication with these partners is a testament that we strive to make an impact on the carbon management challenges our nation is faced with today. For more information, visit https://www.liveoakenviro.com.