Vycarb secures up to $2.7M Colorado carbon capture grant

Vycarb has secured a grant of up to $2,713,200 to design, install and operate a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system in Colorado. The $2.7 million award comes from the Colorado Energy Office’s Clean Air Program, which has a $25 million budget allocated over six years.

Vycarb will deploy its full-stack CCS system at an operating industrial site, with the stated aim of decarbonizing emissions-heavy sectors. The state funding adds a site-specific deployment route to the company’s efforts to commercialize lower-purity CO2 capture and storage.

What does the $2.7 million cover?

Colorado’s Clean Air Program will provide up to $2,713,200 for the design, installation and operation of Vycarb’s system. The money is tied to an industrial deployment rather than a general study of carbon-management options. Vycarb describes the project as the first deployment of its proven system at an operating Colorado industrial site.

Vycarb’s announcement does not name the host or specify a plant capacity, captured tonnage, storage volume or commissioning date. Those omissions leave the award’s operational scale unstated.

The award funds deployment, but the announcement sets no capture target or operating date.

How does Vycarb’s capture system work?

Vycarb has developed a system that captures and stores low-purity CO2 without an intermediate purification step. The company says it is the first CCS developer to achieve that approach, a design choice intended to reduce the complexity and cost of storing industrial emissions.

CEO and founder Garrett Boudinot linked the technology to Colorado’s abundant geologic storage sites. He said those locations rarely offer an economically viable option because CO2 must be captured and purified before storage, a step his system skips.

“The Colorado Energy Office’s support will support the first time our proven technology that skips this step will be deployed at an operating industrial site in Colorado to solve the complexity and cost issues of decarbonization,” Boudinot said.

Vycarb has already demonstrated its technology using seawater. The company said that successful demonstration opens a potential pathway to make CCS more affordable and accessible.

The technical advantage is avoided purification, but its industrial value still depends on operating results.

Why did the state select Vycarb?

Vycarb won the grant through a competitive process reviewed by the Clean Air Program team and the program’s Grant Review Committee. Applicants had to demonstrate “additionality,” meaning emissions reductions beyond what the law already requires, and show that their reductions would be direct rather than indirect.

Vycarb is the program’s first carbon management awardee that captures and stores industrial emissions. That distinction places the company’s project within the state’s industrial carbon-management portfolio.

Governor Jared Polis, speaking on behalf of the state, said: “Protecting our environment means investing in data-driven strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are encouraging the use of new technologies to reduce pollution, like carbon management and methane detection, that will make the air we breathe cleaner and protect our state for generations to come.”

The state has backed a project that must produce direct, additional emissions cuts.

What must happen before the grant becomes industrial performance?\n

Vycarb’s announcement leaves several commercial and regulatory details open. The company has not named the industrial host, published a construction and operating timetable, set a volume for CO2 capture and storage, or listed permit dates and an emissions baseline. Without those figures, the award does not show cost per tonne avoided or how much CO2 the installation can store.

Vycarb has separately secured $5 million to commercialize its water-based CO2 capture and storage technology, which the company describes as affordable. It has also said its CCUS solution is ready for industrial-scale piloting following successful technology validation. The $5 million is separate from the Colorado award, and the announcement does not assign it to a specific Colorado installation.

The next market milestone is an operating installation that verifies direct emissions reductions and shows whether avoiding purification lowers the cost of industrial carbon storage. Until Vycarb names the site, sets the schedule and publishes performance data, the $2.7 million remains a deployment commitment, not proof of industrial-scale performance.