One of the nation’s largest facilities for removing carbon dioxide from the sky is about to triple in size, thanks to a large investment from a Japanese trading company.
The deal with Japan’s Sumitomo would increase the removal capacity of Graphyte’s Loblolly facility in southeast Arkansas from 15,000 metric tons per year to 65,000 tons. The expansion is expected to be completed by the end of August, the companies said Wednesday.
The deal could be the first of many joint ventures, according to Graphyte CEO Barclay Rogers. Although the companies didn’t disclose the terms of their agreement, Rogers said in an interview that Sumitomo would get a percentage of the additional revenue produced by the Loblolly expansion and any future projects it helps to bankroll.
Project-development funding “is an essential element for the durable carbon removal market to grow,” Rogers said, referring to removal technologies that store CO2 for hundreds of years. “You can’t build capital-intensive factories with venture capital. So getting to project finance is a critical, critical step for the [carbon dioxide removal] industry as a whole, and particularly for Graphyte.”
