A Durham company looking to pull carbon emissions from the atmosphere just scored a pivotal win from the U.S. Department of Energy.
An Alabama-based project called the Southeast DAC Hub has secured $10.2 million from the Direct Air Capture Hub grant program. Technology from 8 Rivers of Durham is anchoring the project – and that means the potential for local jobs.
The SDAC team also includes personnel from firms such as RTI International, Aircapture (which also developed anchoring technology for the project) the University of Alabama, Georgia Tech and others.
8 Rivers plans to use the funds to design a facility capable of capturing 50,000 tons of carbon emissions annually. CEO Cam Hosie said the company’s technology could be a major tool in the effort to reduce global carbon emissions.
“Essentially, without a way to get carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, there’s no credible pathway to net zero,” he said.
The project centers on the company's Calcite technology, which uses a calcium sorbent to capture CO2 and sequester it safely underground. 8 Rivers invented Calcite in 2019 and initially secured funding from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Other grants followed, such as a $1 million prize award from XPRIZE for Carbon Removal.
The new funds allow the company and its partners to accelerate its process and “put steel in the ground.”
And while the new facility is being built in Mobile, Alabama, the project will have big implications for its presence in Durham, as the engineering, project management and technological development will happen there.
Hosie estimates the company, now at 80 employees, has tripled its headcount over the past year. The plan is to build up the team even more, particularly in engineering.
Hosie said companies like 8 Rivers show that the climate situation isn’t hopeless.
“1.5 degrees, 2 degrees, those are just arbitrary points,” he said. “Any improvement is better than none, and every count of CO2 matters. … What matters is we’re bending the needle toward zero.”
As there are sectors “that are simply extremely hard to abate” when it comes to carbon emissions, the science of pulling legacy emissions out of the atmosphere is critical, Hosie said. He estimates companies are exploring half a dozen conceptual pathways to net zero.
“This is certainly a sector where the more participants we have, the better,” he said.
8 Rivers also developed the technology now part of NetPower, which recently went public via a SPAC deal. NetPower is developing natural gas plants with zero emissions.
Many of 8 Rivers’ engineers were “extremely involved” in the development of NetPower, he said.
“Between NetPower and ourselves … we’re starting to establish the Triangle as a real, kind of center of excellence in climate circles,” he said.
