DOE Funds Svante’s Sorbent-Based Carbon Capture, Storage Project

Svante Technologies has been selected for up to $1.5 million in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding to advance carbon capture in the pulp and paper industry. The funding will support a pre-FEED study at the Ashdown Pulp Mill in Arkansas, where Svante, in partnership with Paper Excellence and Wood, will evaluate post-combustion carbon capture from the recovery boilers’ flue gas.

The project aims to demonstrate the viability of carbon capture and storage in industrial operations while generating high-quality carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits. Svante will leverage its rotary solid sorbent system equipped with metal-organic framework (MOF) filter technology.

“The pulp and paper industry represents a unique opportunity for technology and nature to work in tandem to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere,” said Claude Letourneau, President & CEO of Svante. “Svante's MOF-based carbon capture technology has the potential to change how industrial facilities manage their emissions, and we are confident that this project will pave the way for wider industry adoption.”

Ashdown Pulp Mill; image credit: Domtar

The System & Impact

The MOF-based carbon-capture system delivers key advantages, such as notable capture-related cost reductions, modular plant design, and adhering to environmental responsibility.

• Carbon-Capture Cost Reductions: Svante’s carbon-capture process uses low-grade waste heat, minimizing energy consumption and overall CO₂-capture cost.
• Modularized Capture Plant Design: The company’s simplified plant design reduces capital costs and CAPEX, minimizes the interruption of current factory operations, and easily facilitates integration with pulp mills.
• Environmental Responsibility: Solid sorbent nanomaterials are environmentally benign, avoiding secondary emissions and liquid waste/effluents. Svante’s filter materials are engineered with sustainable production and recyclability in mind, integrating cleanliness safety within its rotary solid sorbent system.

Upon final investment decision, the plant may remove up to 1.5 million tons of biogenic CO₂ from the atmosphere via sustainable biomass, in addition to unlocking CDR credits within the pulp and paper industry.

More Svante News

In mid-January 2025, Svante and Tenaska agreed to deliver end-to-end carbon capture and storage solutions to decarbonize industrial markets. These low-cost, integrated solutions will combine Svante’s solid sorbent-based carbon-capture technology with Tenaska’s regional planning and infrastructure for CO₂ transportation and storage. The partners intend to lower industrial emissions in pulp and paper, cement, steel, oil and gas, and more.

Svante will capture, compress, condition, and liquefy CO₂ emissions at industrial facilities, promoting efficient and environmentally friendly CO₂ capture for industrial emitters. Under the agreement, Tenaska will handle CO₂ transportation and permanent, deep-subsurface sequestration. With help from Svante, Tenaska is establishing mid- and early-stage projects across the United States, with Class VI permit applications filed for almost 20 injection wells.

And, in late January 2024, Climeworks entered into a collaboration and supply agreement with Svante, which outlines the joint plan to supply Svante contractor blocks for three large-scale Climeworks CO₂ projects. The partners intend to lead a commercial-scale supply agreement, whereby Climeworks will purchase Svante’s contractor blocks for the planned megaton direct air capture (DAC) hubs in the United States.

The DOE selected Climeworks to develop these DAC hubs in Louisiana, California, and North Dakota, enabling the company to receive a total of more than $600 million in federal funding. The collaboration allows both partners to agree on intermediate goals and to cooperate on the next phase of development.