Sacramento clean fuel company Infinium has struck a partnership with Engie SA, a French multinational utility company, to develop a commercial-scale plant in France to convert carbon dioxide emissions into renewable fuel.
The estimated $571 million plant will take carbon emissions from an ArcelorMittal S.A. steel production plant in Northern France, convert it into fuel, and sell it in the European Union, Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle told the Business Journal.
“We take the CO2 and turn it from a liability into a revenue stream,” Schuetzle said.
Infinium is commercializing a process that uses renewable electricity to release hydrogen from water, and then mix the hydrogen with waste carbon dioxide to make synthetic gas. The fuel made in the process can be used as a replacement for diesel fuel in existing trucks and ships, as well as for jet fuel.
This will be Infinium’s first manufacturing plant. It will be capable of producing about 38 million gallons of “electrofuel” a year, Schuetzle said.
The cost of the “Reuze” plant will be covered by future investors in the operation, and it will operate under license from Infinium for the process, he said. The investors in the plant should be prepared to start build-out in 2023, with a couple of years of construction. The investors will own the plant. The electrofuel plant will be adjacent to the ArcelorMittal steel plant in the port city of Dunkirk, France. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) is the world's second-largest steelmaker.
The utility company Engie will supply the plant with excess renewable electricity, mainly from a mix of solar and wind power. The steel plant will supply about 300,000 tons of CO2 per year. Those are emissions that currently are sent into the atmosphere.
For the steel plant, the CO2 is a liability, but the electrofuel process derives value from it, Schuetzle said.
The plant will also get support from French grants for decarbonization, as well as from the Port of Dunkirk, the third-ranking port in France and a major cargo shipment corridor. The fuel made at the plant will also get credit for its users, similar to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard incentives in California, Schuetzle said. “It adds revenue.”
In November, Infinium raised $69 million to commercialize its process, with lead investors including NextEra Energy Resources LLC, the world’s largest renewable energy company, and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
