Three projects in Campbell County dealing with alternative uses for fossil fuels and existing infrastructure were awarded a combined $32 million in matching funds from the Wyoming Energy Authority.
In mid-January, Gov. Gordon approved six separate projects to receive the state’s matching funds, and three of them have local ties.
Black Hills Energy and Babcock & Wilcox, or B&W, were awarded $16 million for their project that converts coal from the Wyodak mine into low-carbon hydrogen.
Cowboy Clean Fuels, an early-stage clean energy and climate tech company with an office in Gillette, received $7.8 million for its “Triangle Unit Carbon Capture and Storage Project” which will find a new use for old coal-bed methane wells.
And Membrane Technology and Research, Inc., or MTR, received $8 million in funding for its pilot carbon capture project at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center at Basin Electric’s Dry Fork Station.
The total awarding for all six projects is $37.5 million and will leverage more than $120 million in federal funding and private dollars for an investment of over $157 million in Wyoming-based energy projects.
The Energy Matching Funds intend to spur innovation and bring transformative energy projects to Wyoming, leading the way to provide the nation with the energy it requires, solving sustainability issues without deteriorating reliability and affordability.
In 2022, the Wyoming Legislature appropriated $100 million to the Office of the Governor to provide matching funds for private or federal funding for research, demonstration, pilot projects or commercial deployment projects related to Wyoming energy needs. An additional $50 million was made available in 2023.
Cowboy Clean Fuels was established to commercialize technology developed at the University of Wyoming. The project it received funding for will use existing coal-bed methane wells and natural gas infrastructure to produce low-carbon renewable natural gas.
It uses organic matter as a feedstock for low-carbon renewable natural gas.
“Their whole idea is to rejuvenate the CBM wells,” said Phil Christopherson, executive director of Energy Capital Economic Development. “We connected them with a couple CBM producers, still working in the industry to find some wells that they could practice and get their technology perfected on.”
The project uses the byproducts of sugar beet refining as feedstock injection, diluting the byproducts unavailable for human consumption and injecting them into deep coal bed methane wells and other nonproductive natural gas infrastructure, according to the project’s executive summary.
As sugar beets grow, they remove carbon dioxide from the air and convert it through photosynthesis into simple carbohydrates like sugar. Refining the beets into crystal sugar results in multiple byproducts, including molasses, that aren’t meant for human consumption but are ideal for this process.
Through the duration of the project, CCF will use the coal-bed methane wells to inject about 35,000 tons of molasses into a coal formation, resulting in the generation of 54 million cubic feet of renewable natural gas and the sequestration of nearly 15,000 tons of CO2.
The project is scheduled to be full scale in 2026, producing 700 million cubic feet of natural gas and sequestering 180,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
A study conducted by the UW’s Center for Business and Economic Analysis estimated that in 2025 the project will support 221 jobs, and once it’s at full scale, it will result in $8.8 million in tax revenues to state and local governments.
The project at Wyodak Mine will look at converting coal into hydrogen. With the $16 million in matching funds, Black Hills and B&W will complete the plan and design for a building to demonstrate a chemical looping process, BrightLoop, to produce 15 tons of hydrogen daily.
This process converts Powder River Basin coal into low carbon hydrogen and isolates a stream of carbon dioxide without using expensive carbon capture equipment.
If successful, the final constructed project would serve as the foundation for expanded hydrogen production using Powder River Basin coal. The companies see this as a “stepping stone towards a larger endeavor” that can supply 200 tons of hydrogen a day to Black Hills Energy’s Neil Simpson Complex in Campbell County, according to the project’s executive summary.
MTR uses a physical membrane that intercepts the flue gas from the plant and filters contaminants. The project it received funding for will design, build and operate a large pilot carbon capture system at the ITC.
This is the last stage MTR is going through before it takes its process to commercialization.
This also is an integral step for another MTR project at Dry Fork Station that covers Phase I of a full-scale, integrated carbon capture and storage program. It was recently awarded funding from the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration.
“MTR’s Large Pilot capture plant represents the culmination of a 15-year federal program to develop innovative, second-generation capture technologies. This award supports the construction and operation of MTR’s membrane-based capture plant at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, where it will be the largest capture plant of its kind when commissioned next year,” said Brett Andrews, President of MTR Carbon Capture, in a press release.
Additionally, Casper-based Flowstate Solutions received $2 million for a project that addresses leak detection failures in oil and gas operations by using artificial intelligence. The UW School of Energy Resources was awarded $2.75 million in funding for its pilot project that tackles the large quantities of water produced by oil and gas wells by treating it so it can be used to generate hydrogen.
And Williams Companies received $975,000 for a feasibility study to assess the development of a saline carbon dioxide storage hub in south-central Wyoming.
Gordon said these projects benefits Wyoming’s core industries while helping set the stage for new forms of energy development.
“The caliber of these six projects shows how Wyoming is truly positioned to be a trailblazer for the future of the energy industry,” said Rob Creager, executive director of the Wyoming Energy Authority, in the press release. “Not only do these companies want to work with our state’s incredible natural resources, but they want to work with our communities and experienced workforce. Each of these projects uses a valuable Wyoming resource and, through ingenuity and effort, works to create a future where Wyoming-made energy is very much still front and center of the market.”
