Velocys signs CCUS agreement for its US biomass-to-fuel plant

Velocys

RENEWABLE fuels company Velocys has signed an agreement with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) to capture and store CO₂ from its Bayou Fuels biomass-to-fuel plant in Mississippi, US.

The Bayou Fuels project in Natchez, Mississippi will convert waste wood biomass into diesel for heavy trucks and sustainable aviation fuel using Velocys’ Fischer Tropsch process. Velocys’ design is suited to the addition of CCUS technology, which will be provided by OLCV. OLCV is a subsidiary of Occidental and will utilise Occidental’s expertise in storing CO₂. Capturing and storing the CO₂ produced by the facility will result in fuels that have a net negative carbon intensity. Bayou Fuels is expected to be operational by 2025 and will have a capacity of around 114m L/y.

Henrik Wareborn, CEO at Velocys said: "We don’t just want to deal with waste materials and produce cleaner burning fuels – we want the process that produces the clean fuels to be as sustainable as possible as well. That is why we will be capturing CO₂ as a by-product from the gasification process at our Mississippi facility. This will make the facility a net negative emitter of carbon dioxide, which is highly desirable from both an environmental and an investment point of view.

Richard Jackson, President, OLCV, said: “CCUS is essential to reducing the carbon intensity of the transport sector and achieving global climate goals. This project illustrates how CCUS can enable production of zero-carbon and negative-carbon fuels. Occidental is uniquely positioned to develop and operate CO₂ sequestration facilities based on our 40 years of experience injecting CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery. We are excited to build on this experience to support Velocys in a strategic partnership to produce negative-carbon intensity fuels.”

Velocys is also developing a commercial-scale waste to jet fuels plant in the UK. According to Wareborn, the plant could make use of CCUS technology if there is sufficient support from the UK Government and if transport and storage infrastructure becomes available.