A division of Chevron Corp. is exploring the potential with Vancouver, BC-based Svante Inc. to add a 10,000 metric ton/year (mty) carbon capture unit that would reduce emissions at a Chevron facility in California.

Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV) has commissioned a pre-front end engineering design (pre-FEED) study on the unit, which is modeled after a Svante demonstration plant in Saskatchewan that captures 10,000 mty from a natural gas steam boiler, Svante said.

The study is expected to be completed by the end of June.*

“We are thrilled to be working alongside one of our earliest investors towards a solution that will contribute to a low carbon future,” said Svante CEO Claude Letourneau. Svante “will take the learnings from our demonstration plant to design and build an improved second-of-a-kind facility using our state-of-the-art proprietary nano-filter technology.”

Said CTV President Barbara Burger, “At Chevron, we believe our industry is well positioned to help commercialize carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies that will be essential for the energy transition. We have leveraged venture capital and trial capabilities, our experience, and our operations to support the development of low carbon solutions.”

Demonstrating the technology in the field, she said, “is an important step in advancing a technology toward commercialization and scale…Commissioning this study reflects our commitment to advance breakthrough innovation that will be important in a low carbon economy and help Chevron deliver on our mission to produce and provide affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy.”

CTV first invested in Svante in 2014 through Fund V, “which supports early to mid-stage companies developing emerging technologies that have the potential to improve Chevron’s core business,” the companies said. “In 2018, CTV established a separate fund, the Future Energy Fund, to invest solely in breakthrough technologies that enable the energy transition.”

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s $1 billion-plus investment fund, Climate Investments LLP, of which Chevron is a part, also invested in Savante.

The Chevron news follows the filing for a permit by fellow major ExxonMobil to build a $263 million carbon capture project at the LaBarge natural gas field in Wyoming.

Legislation to promote carbon capture technology in the oil and gas industry has garnered bipartisan support.

The Senate last June passed the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) act, which supports “the construction and development of carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration facilities and carbon dioxide pipelines.”

In May 2019, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a separate bill, the Launching Energy Advancement and Development through Innovations for Natural Gas Act.

*The original article misstated the expected completion date of the pre-front end engineering design study. NGI regrets the error.