Spiritus, a Los Alamos–based firm engineering energy systems designed with integrated carbon management, is adding seasoned talent from two major industrial players as it prepares to build its first commercial-scale project in Wyoming.
The company announced that Mayur Sathe, PhD, formerly with LanzaTech, will serve as Senior Director of Process Engineering, while Matt Arcy, previously at Chevron, will take on the role of Project Development Advisor.
“They know we are building infrastructure that has to perform at the same standard as the largest energy assets in the world,” said CEO and co-founder Charles Cadieu, emphasizing that their expertise will guide cost management, site sequencing, and large-scale deployment strategies.
Spiritus entering the commercial phase
The hires come as Spiritus moves from pilot projects toward full industrial deployment. The company is building partnerships that combine energy production with carbon capture and infrastructure systems aimed at reducing emissions from power-heavy customers. The new executives bring experience spanning advanced chemical processes, large-scale construction, and asset optimization.
Sathe previously helped improve the performance of carbon capture and recycling technology at LanzaTech. His new mandate focuses on shaping Spiritus’ system architecture, leveraging kinetics, equipment design, and thermal management to lower energy consumption and ensure operational predictability at commercial volumes.
Arcy, who served as Technical Director for Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG operations, brings a background managing multi-billion-dollar natural gas and liquefied natural gas projects. At Spiritus, he will support site planning in Wyoming and future developments, applying digital project design and automation to accelerate delivery of modular utility-scale carbon and power facilities.
Fragmented industry development
Direct air capture in the U.S. is seeing uneven progress in the last year, as funding for several large regional hubs was discontinued, making it impossible to overcome high costs and permitting challenges.
The 45Q tax credit, which offers up to $180 per metric ton of CO2 stored, remains the key driver for investment. Smaller projects and early commercial buyers are moving forward more quickly than large, infrastructure-heavy hubs, signaling a shift toward deployment models that can grow without major public megaproject funding.
Read more: Spiritus Raises $30m In Series A Funding To Scale DAC
