8 Rivers Capital, a leading decarbonization technology and project developer, has secured an investment from JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation (JX) to support the commercialization of its proprietary Calcite direct air capture (DAC) solution.
This funding will facilitate the transition of the Calcite technology from pilot phase to commercial project development.
Project Cardinal, the first commercial deployment of Calcite, is slated for construction in the U.S. Gulf Coast, with FEED (Front-End Engineering Design) to commence in 2025.
The SEDAC hub, a collaboration involving 8 Rivers, Calcite, and other partners, has been awarded $20.5 million to complete FEED studies for the construction and operation of two DAC facilities, each with an initial capture capacity of 50,000 net DAC tonnes of CO2.
JX’s investment will also support further technology derisking at Calcite’s pilot project in Mobile, Alabama.
This investment marks JX’s initial foray into the growing DAC space and represents a significant milestone in the ongoing partnership between 8 Rivers and JX Nippon.
In 2021, the two companies signed a comprehensive collaboration agreement to identify and develop unique opportunities in the carbon capture market. Following this investment and the successful deployment of Calcite at Project Cardinal, JX plans to deploy Calcite in projects across the Asia-Pacific region.
“This investment comes at an important time for our company and the industry and validates our Calcite DAC platform as a leading solution for the global energy transition,” said Christopher Richardson, CEO of 8 Rivers.
“We are excited to strengthen our partnership with JX and collaborate with their team on Project Cardinal and future Calcite deployments across the Asia-Pacific. JX is an established industry innovator working to lead the effort to decarbonize the industry at scale—we could not be more excited to deepen our partnership with them.”
Today’s investment comes just over a year after Calcite was recognized as a winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub grant.
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8 Rivers developed Calcite in 2019 and advanced the technology with initial funding from the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy FLECCS program, pre-purchases from the Frontier Fund, and a $1 million prize from XPRIZE. Additionally, Calcite was recently selected as a semifinalist in the DOE’s DAC Commercial CDR Purchase Pilot Prize.
The International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 Scenario report underscores the necessity of DAC deployments to achieve global emissions-reduction goals. DAC technologies are projected to capture significant amounts of CO2 in the coming decades.
Public and private investment in emerging DAC platforms is crucial for rapid, global deployment of these technologies. The investment and partnership between JX and 8 Rivers will support large-scale demonstration and commercialization of Calcite, paving the way for a net-zero future for hard-to-abate industries.
