Private equity investment firm Grey Rock announced today an agreement to make a controlling investment in carbon capture & storage developer Vault CCS Holdings and to fund the company’s growth, with a capital commitment of up to $150 million.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is the process of capturing CO2 emissions from industrial emitters and transforming the CO2 into a liquid form that can be stored underground permanently, reducing the amount of CO2 that would have otherwise entered the atmosphere.

Matt Miller, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Grey Rock, said:

“We find carbon capture and sequestration to be one of the most compelling opportunities in the energy transition. After having met with several CCS teams, it was clear to us that Vault was the right fit for us in how we approach investments.”

Vault has developed a platform of CCS projects with ethanol facilities in the US Midwest region. Each of these projects emits between 200,000 and 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Vault has also secured positions in several, early-stage CCS projects in Canada. The company’s current pipeline of projects could capture and store up to 25 million metric tonnes of CO2 annually, equivalent to removing 5.4 million cars off the road.

The company will use the committed capital to act on its near-term pipeline of CCS projects and on the development of further opportunities in the CCS space.

Scott Rennie, Chief Executive Officer of Vault, said:

“In Grey Rock, we found a like-minded investment partner whose stellar investment track record and technical approach represents the type of capital partner that we feel will support our objective of developing and executing high quality CCS projects with a range of industrial partners across North America. Having a partner who understands the fundamentals of our business is critical in moving quickly to bring projects to fruition and support effective scaling of the emerging CCS industry.”