Chevron leads investments in Svante’s carbon capture technology

December 16, 2022, by Aida Čučuk

Carbon capture and removal solutions provider Svante has raised $318 million to accelerate the manufacturing of its carbon capture technology, with Chevron New Energies (CNE), Chevron USA’s unit focusing on low-carbon, being the lead investor in its Series E fundraising round.

“We are advancing a full value chain carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) business, and believe Svante is poised to be a leader in enabling carbon capture solutions. Innovation is key to enabling these types of breakthrough technologies and lower carbon solutions, and we look forward to applying our experience and expertise to help drive this effort forward,” said Chris Powers, Vice President of CCUS with CNE.

Claude Letourneau, President and CEO of Svante, said: “We are proud that Chevron and a group of existing and new strategic and financial investors have demonstrated their confidence in Svante to be a key player in building a commercially viable carbon management industry. We are working to remove the biggest barriers to rapid deployment of industrial carbon capture by building this manufacturing facility, which we expect will enable us to rapidly expand our order book.”

Other fundraising round participants include existing shareholders Temasek, OGCI Climate Investments, Delek US, and Hesta AG, and new investors, 3M Ventures, Full Circle Capital, GE Vernova, Japan Energy Fund, Liberty Media, M&G Catalyst, Samsung Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, and United Airlines Ventures.

According to Svante, since its founding in 2007, it has been developing carbon capture and removal technology using structured adsorbent beds, known as filters, and this funding will support Svante’s commercial-scale filter manufacturing facility in Vancouver, which is anticipated to produce enough filter modules to capture millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year across hundreds of large-scale carbon capture and storage facilities.

Svante’s modular solid sorbent technology is designed to capture CO2 from industrial flue gas, which then concentrates it into a high-purity, 95% pipeline-grade CO2 to prepare it for storage or further industrial use.

Svante said that its technology approach is tailored specifically to the challenges of separating CO2 from nitrogen in diluted flue gas, which is typically emitted at low pressures, and in dilute concentrations.

Its technology targets industrial decarbonisation activities in fields that include hydrogen, pulp and paper, lime, cement, steel, aluminium, and chemicals. Svante’s filters are also available for direct air capture and carbon dioxide removal.

Chevron Technology Ventures made an initial investment in Svante in 2014, and in 2020, Chevron launched a project to pilot Svante technology to capture CO2 from the post-combustion of natural gas. In collaboration with Svante and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the technology will be tested at Chevron’s Kern River facility in San Joaquin Valley, California, with startup underway this month. The project has received funding from the US Department of Energy.

In 2021, Chevron launched CNE to accelerate lower carbon business opportunities in CCUS, hydrogen, renewable fuels and products, offsets, and emerging technologies, and Chevron plans to invest $10 billion in lower carbon projects through 2028, noting that it remains committed to collaborating in new ways to accelerate progress.