Leilac partner Heirloom announces major US direct air capture projects

Both facilities will deploy Leilac’s electric calcination and carbon capture technology under a global licence agreement.

The first facility, with a capacity to remove ~17 000 tpy of CO₂, is expected to commence operations by 2026. A second facility, designed to handle ~300 000 tpy, will be developed in phases, starting with an initial capacity of ~100 000 t expected to be operational by 2027.

Daniel Rennie, Leilac CEO:

“Direct Air Capture technology will play a big part in the global effort to address climate change. Heirloom and Leilac’s partnership and our complementary and innovative technologies are designed to deliver a way to drive down DAC costs. I am proud of these projects and eager to see them validate our exciting combined technology approach.”

Shashank Samala, Heirloom CEO:

“We couldn’t be more excited to be building these new facilities in Northwest Louisiana. These investments not only bring meaningful economic activity and job creation to the region, but also help to cement Louisiana as a leader in this new energy economy and further America’s leadership on the global stage.

“Coming shortly after we opened America’s first commercial DAC facility, this expansion in Louisiana continues Heirloom’s strong momentum as we work toward billion-ton scale.”

Carbon clean-up

Carbon dioxide removal is predicted to play a critical role in preventing the worst effects of climate change. An estimated 1 – 10 billion tpy of atmospheric CO2 removal will be required to mitigate excess emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 °C. The ongoing development and deployment of DAC technology is crucial in the quest meet global climate commitments and ultimately achieve net-zero or even net-negative emissions.

Leilac’s partnership with Heirloom brings together two complementary climate technologies to provide an efficient approach to atmospheric carbon dioxide removal by DAC. Through the use of low cost and abundant limestone, modular and scalable designs, and efficient and renewably powered electric heating, Heirloom and Leilac’s combined approach aims to deliver a fast and low-cost path to permanent CO2 removal.

The partnership also aims to accelerate the deployment of renewably powered electric calcination technology for the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries, like cement and lime, in support of a just transition to sustainable local industries.

Scaling up

A phased scale up approach is designed to enable technical, engineering, and operational learnings and efficiencies that support more cost-effective carbon dioxide removal at scale.

Following the signing of a perpetual global licence agreement and a collaboration agreement in October 2023, Leilac and Heirloom have continued to progress the engineering and design of DAC plants using Leilac’s electric calcination and carbon capture technology. These designs have been supported by ongoing R&D campaigns using an electric calciner pilot-plant at the Calix Technology Centre, a site owned and managed by Calix, Leilac’s parent company.

The 300 000 tpy facility is Heirloom’s contribution to Project Cypress, a DOE-supported DAC Hub eligible for up to US$600 million in government funding. In addition, the State of Louisiana will contribute up to US$10 million in economic incentives for the projects, reflecting bipartisan support for DAC in the state. Combined, the DAC facilities are expected to create at least 1000 construction jobs and over 80 permanent jobs.

Permanent carbon removals

Heirloom is partnering with CapturePoint, a carbon management company, to store the CO₂ captured from these facilities in Class VI underground wells – a safe, durable, and permanent storage solution. The pipeline and storage wells used for Heirloom’s captured CO₂ will be dedicated to permanent CO₂ storage. Both facilities will be fully powered by additional renewable energy sources.

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