In an effort to stimulate the advancement of carbon removal in the United States, the Carbon Removal Alliance (CRA) has set out to release a series of memos that outline opportunities for integrating carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions into various industries.
Looking at sectors that are developing fast and at scale, such as mining, pulp and paper, wastewater, and more, the Alliance identified potential for industrial carbon removal integrations that could unlock a gigaton CO2 removal scale.
Led by a vision of such industrial partnerships, the Alliance hosted a live online event last month that brought together relevant stakeholders to discuss topics like the economics and public policy that would help streamline these collaborations, as well as the requirements and details around establishing these relationships.
The event was followed by the release of two new memos that delve into the industrial carbon removal partnership opportunities in the wastewater treatment and mining industries in the United States.
As highlighted in the memos, the U.S. is home to a developed infrastructure of new, existing, and legacy mine sites, as well as a network of wastewater treatment plants that could contribute towards meaningful climate results and tap into economic and strategic benefits by integrating carbon removal technologies in their operations.
In the bigger picture, industrial, large-scale carbon removal integrations would also fortify the domestic production sector in the United States, lowering reliance on foreign suppliers and strengthening the US’ presence on the global market.
In the case of the mining industry, the memo points out that carbon removal integrations could help access new revenue opportunities, enhanced mineral recovery, and improved operational efficiency and waste management.
While other countries are currently in the lead of CDR integrations in mining sites, the memo underscores that the United States has a key advantage of possessing the fourth-largest known lithium reserve in the world, which is a critical mineral in energy production.
In regard to policy, the memo names a number of pathways that would encourage CDR adoption in mines, including the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) recognizing carbon removal as waste management and prioritizing permits on federal lands for mine sites that integrate carbon removal, as well as classifying phosphorus as a critical mineral.
Additionally, the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) should ensure mining-related carbon removal projects are eligible for financial assistance, recognizing that CDR helps “create, maintain, protect, expand, or restore domestic mineral production.”
The two memos are authored by Eli Cain, Senior Policy Manager at the Carbon Removal Alliance. This week, our team sat down for a conversation with Eli, talking about the vision and motivation behind these publications.
Carbon Herald: What do companies stand to gain from carbon removal integrations?
Eli Cain:
We have this opportunity to protect traditional American industries and to support and protect traditional American infrastructure.
The mining sector in America has been declining for the last 30 years, and we have an opportunity to help revitalize it.
We can bring new revenue opportunities by giving access to the growing carbon market. We can bring operational efficiencies. Integrating carbon removal into mining can reduce waste volumes and waste reactivity. We can unlock the possibility of bringing these public-private partnerships into the municipal wastewater treatment sector.
There are a lot of tangible benefits; that’s why I’m excited about it. It’s not just a belief in climate change and climate action. It’s also the belief in having a more efficient water infrastructure in America and making sure that the infrastructure we have lasts longer and is more productive. I think a lot of these things are why there’s a really tangible opportunity for us to make progress right now in these sectors.
When it comes to wastewater treatment, the memo indicates the need for facility modernization in this industry. It also notes that carbon removal integrations would introduce tech advancements in this sector, along with cost savings and new revenue streams.
In terms of policy, the memo proposes four mechanisms that would catalyze the CDR-wastewater plant collaborations.
They include leveraging the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) for carbon removal incentives, updating wastewater treatment facility performance guidelines to include CO2 management, establishing an innovative Wastewater Technology Grant Program, and creating a Wastewater Carbon Removal Outreach Program that would educate facilities on the economic potential of carbon removal partnerships.
Is there currently a way for companies to evaluate their suitability for a carbon removal integration?
Right now it happens on an ad hoc basis; it’s kind of a one-on-one. There are a lot of things that can be done, and this will depend on the sector.
In the mining sector, you have to know the mine and not only what’s being mined but also what’s around the mine and the type of rock that interacts with it. There are a lot of factors that go into it.
I think I’d be really keen to see if there are overarching surveys that we can do to better map out where these opportunities exist.
For example, we know that there are tens of thousands of abandoned mines in the United States. Can we do things like an overarching survey to understand where the opportunities for integrating carbon removal into those legacy mine sites are and then prioritize those for co-locating carbon removal? Areas like that I’m really keen to explore further.
What is the government’s role in enabling these partnerships?
The government has a huge role to play in scaling this industry. That’s something that we believe very passionately at Carbon Removal Alliance.
That role varies industry by industry according to what levers they have to play with.
In the mining sector, we’re going to need more mining in the United States. The entire clean transition and energy transition depend on increased mining in the United States, and it will also serve as an international competitiveness advantage. It’s not strategic for us to import over 70% of our rare earth metals from China.
Relevant: Carbon Removal Alliance Publishes New Policy Roadmap For Scaling CDR In The US
There’s also a major economic opportunity here. These minerals have a huge market for them, and we can help to tap into that and bring that domestic mining sector back to the U.S. We can ease that transition and allow for more mining in the United States, and do that in a thoughtful, responsible way that also prioritizes carbon removal to provide that economic backbone.
In the wastewater sector, the federal government is one of the largest funders of water infrastructure in the United States. Integrating carbon removal into that water infrastructure not only provides a new source of revenue and eases the burden on the taxpayer but also makes that infrastructure more productive and last longer.
We get more use out of federal money, and we ease the burden on the taxpayer. I really believe the federal government has a huge role to play in both these sectors in terms of stimulating these types of partnerships.
What could the carbon removal industry look like in five years if these partnerships take off, and as a contrast, what would happen if these opportunities are missed?
On the mining side, I really view this as the rise of dual-use mining hubs, where we can bring mining activity and carbon removal together on the same site.
On active mines, we’re going to continue doing our mine activity, but we’re going to bring carbon removal activities onto that site as well. Like I said, not only is there the revenue opportunity, but there’s also the operational efficiency side. We’ve started to see one planned out in Canada, and I think that’s a strategic opportunity to bring that model to the United States.
On the wastewater side, this is low-hanging fruit. We should be doing this at every large municipal scale and every large municipal facility in the country. Not only does it reduce costs for the taxpayer, but it also has these very tangible benefits for the treatment facility itself. I think really what we’re going to start seeing is a lot more integration with these large municipal facilities that are processing millions of gallons of water every day.
Conversely, if we miss it, it’s just a missed opportunity. This is low-hanging fruit that is mutually beneficial for the carbon removal industry and traditional American industry. I would hate to see us miss the opportunity to integrate those two things very closely.
How would the proliferation of these partnerships position the United States on the global market?
The United States has the largest and most robust carbon removal industry in the world, and that isn’t an accident. It’s because over the last decade, we’ve had intentional federal policies to stimulate that market, which means that we have hundreds of companies employing thousands of people in the United States.
The potential for this field is to employ hundreds of thousands of people, but that will only happen if we continue to do thoughtful federal policy to incentivize this work here in the United States.
We’ve already seen that these opportunities can go elsewhere. They can go to Canada, they can go to China, depending on the geography. We have an opportunity to make a strong case at the federal level and to use federal policy to stimulate that economy here. Let’s protect the American carbon removal industry and strengthen America’s strategic supply chains, and do that through integrating carbon removal into existing industries.
Going forward, throughout the course of this year, the Carbon Removal Alliance will work on releasing a series of these policy memos focused on opportunitues for integrating CDR in different industries, and Eli Cain shares that the organization will be doing more in-depth work into the mining sector.
Read more: Isometric Issues First Protocol For CDR In The Mining Industry
