California-based climate tech company CarbonCapture announced the launch of “Project Bison,” a new Direct Air Capture (DAC) project aimed at permanently removing and storing five million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year, in partnership with carbon storage developer Frontier Carbon Solutions.

According to CarbonCapture CEO and CTO Adrian Corless, the launch of the project comes as the “ingredients needed to scale DAC to megaton levels” are now in place, including “the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the proliferation of companies seeking high-quality carbon removal credits, and a disruptive low-cost technology.”

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Biden last month, includes the U.S.’ largest ever set of climate-focused investments, allocating nearly $370 billion to areas including renewable energy and industrial decarbonization solutions. Since the passage of the new law, several companies have unveiled major plans for climate-focused investments in the U.S., including an announcement from solar technology company First Solar of its intention to invest up to $1.2 billion to significantly scale its PV solar module manufacturing capacity, and from international energy company Occidental for a DAC plant in the Texas Permian Basin capable of scaling up to 1 million tons.

DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to the landmark IPCC climate change mitigation study released earlier this year, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total.

CarbonCapture has selected Wyoming for the location of the new DAC project, given the broad availability of renewable and zero carbon energy sources as well as the favorable regulatory and operating environment for carbon storage.

Mark Gordon, Governor of Wyoming, said:

“The state of Wyoming is proud to be selected as the first location for megaton-scale direct air capture and to continue our leadership in the storage of CO2. We have the perfect CO2 storage geology and a broad-based energy strategy that includes CO2 sequestration hubs.”

The project is expected to be operational by late 2023, and to be developed over multiple phases through 2030, reaching 5 million tons of annual capacity.

Under the new partnership, CarbonCapture’s DAC modules will be deployed atop Frontier’s CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure in Wyoming. The project will be the first atmospheric carbon removal facility to use Class VI wells for permanent storage.

Robby Rockey, President and COO of Frontier Carbon Solutions, said:

“Safe, permanent carbon storage and direct air capture are foundational to a low-carbon economy.  CarbonCapture’s DAC technology and Frontier’s storage assets, this partnership will scale these critical industries in Wyoming, ultimately bringing more investment capital and jobs to the state.”