Heirloom Makes Plans for Two DAC Facilities in Louisiana

California-headquartered Heirloom Carbon Technologies on June 24 said it plans to create two direct air capture (DAC) facilities at the Port of Caddo-Bossier in northwest Louisiana.

Construction of the first facility, located in Shreveport, Louisiana, is expected to start by the end of 2024.

The facility is expected to remove about 17,000 tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere starting in 2026. The company said it intends to invest $475 million during the project’s first phase.

The second facility, part of Project Cypress, will utilize up to $550 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The regional DAC hub is being jointly developed in West Calcasieu Parish with Battelle, an applied science and technology nonprofit organization, and Swiss DAC specialist Climeworks Corp. The hub’s goal is to ultimately capture more than 1 million metric tons of existing CO₂ from the atmosphere when the facility reaches full capacity.

“With these two facilities in northwest Louisiana, Heirloom is continuing its rapid progress in building one of the world’s most affordable carbon removal solutions with the ability to scale to remove billions of tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere,” Heirloom CEO Shashank Samala said in a news release.

Heirloom’s technology uses limestone to suck CO₂ from the atmosphere. Once absorbed, the CO₂ is extracted from the limestone material using a renewable energy-powered kiln and stored permanently underground, the company said in a news release.

In Louisiana, Carbon Technologies said it plans to partner with CapturePoint, a carbon management company, to store the CO₂ captured from these facilities in Class VI underground wells at locations to be determined.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the state is positioned to become a leader in CO₂ storage.

“Heirloom’s expansion into the Port of Caddo-Bossier means even more growth and more jobs for our state and is another example of how we are leading the race to drive the nation’s energy future,” Landry said in the news release. “The expansion of Project Cypress Direct Air Capture Hub across the state represents the best of Louisiana – cutting-edge technology at the forefront of the energy economy, powered by innovation and a broad base of highly skilled workers.”

The Shreveport facility will be Heirloom’s second DAC facility the U.S. The company’s first commercial DAC facility began operations in late 2023 after it signed a large CO₂ removal deal with Microsoft. Heirloom also has carbon removal deals in place with Meta, Shopify, JPMorgan, H&M and Autodesk among others, it said.