“If you needed to redesign all industrial systems such that they inherently capture CO2, at the lowest cost possible, how would you do it?”
The energy transition will rest on the answer to this question, asked by 8 Rivers president Damian Beauchamp. He feels his company has the answer, through four main technologies that 8 Rivers can deploy.
These are the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle (AFC) for power, Calcite for direct air capture (DAC), 8RH2 for low-carbon blue hydrogen and KC8 for point-source carbon capture.
The company is working on a pilot DAC project in Alabama, which should be online in 2025. It is also building a post-combustion capture facility in Alabama.
Meanwhile, in Wyoming, it is working on a power project and a blue ammonia project in Texas.
“We have four primary technologies in our portfolio today, and we look for all of them to be achieving FID in 2025 and 2026,” Beauchamp said. It aims to achieve start-up in 2028-30.
“Things are starting to come together.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the recent Adipec conference, Beauchamp said the industry was changing.
“Seven years ago, [other attendees] were scratching their head on why you wanted a power plant that inherently captured CO2. Or why you wanted a hydrogen system that inherently produced pure CO2 out of the back end,” the executive said. “That has significantly shifted.”
The aim was to keep CO2 capture costs low. The company president said this was “directly correlated with the concentration of CO2 in your effluent. The higher the concentration of CO2, the lower the cost to capture”.
Picking partners
8 Rivers launched in 2008. It has grown, but focuses on technology provision, rather than project development itself.
Beauchamp said the view was of a clean energy company that builds consortiums. It needs to partner with companies for each project.
To find partners, the question becomes which are the biggest companies in the world that would benefit from such technology.
The aim is to “start at the top” and let the idea trickle down. At that point, partner company experts “feel much more secure” to assess technologies honestly.
The other criteria is to focus on existing infrastructure. For CO2 capture, the aim is to find locations with existing assets.
“Our projects are going to cost $500 million to $2 billion each. We don’t need another $250mn to $1bn pipeline project, or an injection project, to be developed before we can even get started.”
Infrastructure must match the size of the prize. It sees economic rationale for a 1 million tonne per year CO2 capture plant within 40 miles (64 km) of pipeline. For interconnection with a power line, the limit is about 100 miles (160 km).
“Where these circles start to overlap, that’s the area where we’re going to focus our time.”
Geographic incentives
The company, based in the US, has focused its first round of plans there. It has signed deals with utilities, oil companies and contractors.
8 Rivers is also a backer of Net Power. This company had set out plans to build a project in the UK, Project Whitetail in Teesside.
Beauchamp said HyNet and Teesside would be “project number two for us on the hydrogen and power front”. The US and UK have regulatory structures that support innovative technologies, he said.
Net Power progressed with Whitetail but opted to focus on US projects.
“It’s interesting and sometimes surprising to me how many things can prevent a project from going forward. It’s not always regulatory, it’s not always economic,” Beauchamp said about Net Power.
“Sometimes there’s just a set of very good circumstances like going public. This takes away from the focus on a particular project and the management team needed to readjust there. It’s a timing thing.” Net Power is now working on a project in Texas.
The executive noted Adipec’s global nature. International markets are “interesting”, he said. “Although the first projects might not be deployed, say here in the Middle East or in Asia, what we’re working to do is build out our pipeline.”
He said companies invested in 8 Rivers’ US projects to “take a smaller bite, get exposure into the project, and then feel more ready to deploy it themselves in their country”.
In September, JX Nippon announced an investment in 8 Rivers’ Calcite DAC technology. SK Group joined in 2022. Beauchamp highlighted Japan and South Korea’s interest in tackling carbon.
He said the European Union is less attractive, meanwhile. The company president described the EU’s outlook as “more of a stick approach than a carrot approach”.
© Supplied by 8 RiversPowering up
Siemens Energy signed with 8 Rivers on turbine plans in August. The two companies will work on a biomass-fuelled AFC project, a “direct-fired super critical CO2 turbine” project.
Its AFC technology uses oxy-combustion, with the byproducts being water and a highly pure CO2 stream.
8 Rivers uses the pure CO2 to make a “kind of synthetic air. By having this control on the front end, we ultimately control what comes out of the back end.”
The company sees the benefit of CO2. Beauchamp said the gas had “particular heat transfer properties that are quite beneficial and can help drive energy efficiency, help keep the heat in the system”.
He explained that CO2 can spin turbines “better than nitrogen”, given its higher molecular mass. “That mass difference also plays a huge role in driving greater energy efficiency, at least in the sense of a turbine when using CO2 as a working fluid.”
Corporate plans
8 Rivers is not rushing to go public. Beauchamp said an IPO was “of interest but I don’t think it’s a requirement”.
He said there were “significant benefits to being a private company”, particularly given the challenges of innovation.
8 Rivers, he said, is developing technologies that can address 70% of the world’s emissions. “If we’re successful in getting three of those delivered as first-of-a-kind, we’ll have such a head start.”
While 8 Rivers is taking a considered stance on the appeal of the public market, it has also taken a conservative stance on potential changes to government support. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) encouraged a number of companies to focus on low-carbon opportunities in the US.
Beauchamp denied that 8 Rivers was one of these. “We started before there was an IRA. So the constraints under which we designed were very different.”
Some of the newer companies have “only popped up because of government handout”, he said. President-elect Donald Trump spoke during his campaign of cutting back energy transition mechanisms. Those new companies may face challenges, as a result.
“We can rest easy knowing that we have sound economics, and that what’s just been passed and pushed through the US government is actually a significant upside for us, but not necessarily a requirement,” Beauchamp said.
There is certainly a question mark over incentives in the US for low carbon projects. But 8 Rivers seems prepared to weather the challenges, given its various technology tools and partnerships.
There are other US headwinds, such as inflation and supply chain pressures. But the environment is clearly conducive for innovation and energy investments.
The real test is due shortly, with pilot projects on the way and investment decisions due. Success should see 8 Rivers grow at home through innovation and then rapidly expand overseas.
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