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California-based Heirloom Carbon Technologies on Monday announced that it is moving forward with the first phase of a massive public-private decarbonization project that will see two direct air capture facilities developed at the Port of Caddo-Bossier.
During phase one, Heirloom will invest $475 million to establish the first of those facilities, which will become the first commercial DAC facility in Louisiana and the second in North America. The company anticipates creating 81 direct jobs with average annual salaries of more than $56,000 in addition to about 1,000 temporary construction jobs.
Heirloom’s technology utilizes limestone to capture CO2 from the atmosphere.
“Rocks are some of the planet’s most vital carbon sinks,” a statement on Heirloom’s website reads. “Limestone is an abundant and inexpensive rock that captures massive amounts of CO2 from the air over years in a process known as carbon mineralization. Heirloom’s technology accelerates this natural process to just days.”
The integration of carbon mineralization into a DAC facility results in an “inexpensive, high-quality, scalable carbon solution,” Heirloom says.
Construction on the first facility is expected to begin by the end of 2024. Heirloom estimates that it will remove roughly 17,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year beginning in 2026.
Phase two of the project—part of Project Cypress—would utilize up to $550 million in Department of Energy funding to develop the second facility. In doing so, the Port of Caddo-Bossier would be transformed into “one of the world’s largest DAC hubs.”
Heirloom plans to partner with Texas-based CapturePoint to permanently store the CO2 captured from the facilities in Class VI underground wells. The locations of those wells are to be determined.
The state has offered Heirloom a $3 million performance-based grant for site infrastructure improvements, according to Louisiana Economic Development. The company may qualify for additional incentives with a potential value of up to $7.8 million over 10 years if employment and payroll targets are met.
North America’s first DAC facility was developed by Heirloom in California and began operations at the end of 2023. The company has signed carbon removal deals with Autodesk, H&M, JPMorgan, Meta, Microsoft and Shopify, among other firms.
