FEED Study for Climeworks Direct Air Capture at a California Geothermal Facility with Long-Term Storage — The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, Illinois) project team will complete a front-end engineering design (FEED) study of an advanced direct air capture (DAC) system developed by Climeworks that will leverage thermal energy from the Brawley Geothermal Plant in Brawley, California, using a selective filter to  separate carbon dioxide (CO₂) from ambient air. The DAC system is strategically located near the proposed geological storage site in California’s Southern Central Valley. The study also will analyze the project’s impact on environmental justice and the regional economy.

DOE Funding: $2,495,197; Non-DOE Funding: $643,904; Total Value: $3,139,101

Nuclear Powered DAC Project in Illinois — The Constellation (Baltimore, Maryland) project team will examine the technical and commercial viability of a DAC and sequestration system developed by Carbon Engineering, co-located with an existing light water nuclear reactor at Constellation’s Byron Generating Station in Byron, Illinois. The system is expected to separate 250,000 tonnes per year net CO₂ from ambient air, and transport the CO₂ by pipeline to an underground geological formation in Illinois for dedicated and permanent storage. The thermal integration design includes the use of the waste heat from the nuclear plant in the DAC system to increase the overall energy efficiency of the CO₂ removal process. 

DOE Funding: $2,500,000; Non-DOE Funding: $625,000; Total Value: $3,125,000

Nuclear Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage —The Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio) project team will conduct a FEED study to deploy a technically advanced DAC system developed by AirCapture LLC, co-located with low-carbon thermal energy sources at Southern Company’s Joseph M. Farley nuclear power plant in Columbia, Alabama. The project will define system costs, performance and business-case options for leveraging available thermal energy from the nuclear plant to separate CO₂ from ambient air for off-site geologic storage.

DOE Funding: $2,499,178; Non-DOE Funding: $864,446; Total Value: $3,363,624

FEED Study of CarbonCapture Inc. DAC and CarbonCure Utilization Technologies Using United States Steel’s Gary Works Plant Waste Heat — The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, Illinois) will lead the execution of a FEED study of an advanced direct air capture and utilization system (DACUS), using the DAC and CO₂ conversion technologies developed by CarbonCapture Inc. and CarbonCure, respectively, that will separate CO₂ from ambient air and covert the CO₂ into concrete products at U.S. Steel’s Gary Works in Gary, Indiana. This study will demonstrate a full CO₂ value chain for DAC from industrial facilities, providing a means to assess the regional impacts of a holistic approach on job creation and environmental justice.

DOE Funding: $3,459,554; Non-DOE Funding: $874,868; Total Value: $4,334,422

Low-Carbon Intensity Formic Acid Chemical Synthesis from Direct Air Captured CO₂ Utilizing Chemical Plant Waste Heat — The AirCapture LLC (Pine Plains, New York) project team will conduct a FEED study for DAC technologies co-located with low-carbon thermal energy sources at Nutrien’s Kennewick Fertilizer Operations facility in Kennewick, Washington. An advanced DAC system developed by AirCapture LLC, coupled to an electrochemical CO₂ conversion system, will separate CO₂ from ambient air and convert the CO₂ to low-carbon-intensity formic acid using industrial waste heat and renewable electricity.

DOE Funding: $2,934,380; Non-DOE Funding: $740,499; Total Value: $3,674,879