CleanTech Alliance awarded $2.5M to create carbon-focused business hub in Washington state

Washington state’s CleanTech Alliance announced it’s receiving a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to launch a hub focused on carbon removal, storage and utilization, as well as support for carbon purchasing.

As the globe falls behind in efforts to stop the release of more carbon dioxide and other planet-warming pollutants, there is increasing urgency to devise ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

The new effort is being called the Washington Energy – Carbon Advancement Network (WECAN). It will receive roughly $500,000 per year over five years to pay for staff and programming.

The SBA issued 14 of the awards to establish regional innovation clusters, and this was the only one granted in the Pacific Northwest.

Some of the carbon-related startups currently operating in Washington include:

• Twelve, a sustainable aviation fuel manufacturer that uses carbon dioxide as a feedstock and is building a facility in Moses Lake.
• CarbonQuest, a Spokane company building carbon capturing devices for buildings and industrial sites.
• Banyu Carbon, a Seattle startup developing technology for extracting carbon dioxide from the ocean, which in turn lowers the levels in the atmosphere.
• Ebb Carbon, a startup working at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory site on the Olympic Peninsula to remove carbon from the air.
• Myno Carbon, which is producing biochar to store carbon.

There is another carbon consortium already underway in the region.

One year ago, the Ankeron Carbon Management Hub landed $3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to do a two-year study on the science, feasibility, job creation and community impacts of carbon removal in the Pacific Northwest.

The group is investigating the opportunities for capturing carbon and locking away carbon in rocks or turning it into other compounds such a sustainable aviation fuels.

The Pacific Northwest region has landed other climate-related federal hub designations, including hydrogen fuel, sustainable mass timber building materials, and lightweight aircraft hubs.