Wyoming is building the world’s largest carbon removal facility

With the proof of principle phase long out the way, the company’s desire to fully scale up has been hindered for years by expensive costs: a single ton of captured CO2 reportedly costs around $500-$700 to achieve. Thankfully, this may not be the case for much longer.

The firm aims to lessen this financial obstacle by finding cheaper substances capable of absorbing carbon, and expects prices to drop to a respectable fee per metric ton. ‘It’s highly likely that there’s going to be a significant number of advancements. So the best materials just still literally haven’t been invented yet,’ says CarbonCapture CEO Adrian Corless.

Another key factor in pushing forth with the Wyoming plant was the recent amendment of US tax credit systems. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act boosted the credit available for carbon capture projects – to $180 per ton – which has sparked a surge of interest from companies looking to offset their own emissions.

‘It [the bill] allowed us to be much more aggressive in thinking about the scale,’ said Corless.

Encouragingly, this has opened the door for other companies to increase their output too. A start-up called Carbon Engineering has partnered with oil subsidiary 1PointFive to build a similar facility in Texas – which could capture 100,000 tons of CO2 every year.

By 2035, 1PointFive has outlaid its grand vision of erecting 70 such carbon capture plants across the globe. Now that would be impressive.

In the case of CarbonCapture, however, it has set its stool out for the foreseeable future within Wyoming. The geology of the region, which is undisclosed to prevent competitors from sniffing around, is described as perfect for locking away emissions in deep Earth reserves.

We can expect this operation to gradually expand in the years ahead, and hopefully that quota of 5 million tons per year can be realised by 2030.