March 4, 2024. Cowboy Clean Fuels, LLC (CCF) has been awarded approximately $7.8 million from the Wyoming Energy Authority (WEA) through the Energy Matching Funds (EMF) program. In addition, CCF’s lead investor, Machan Investments (Machan), committed an additional $7.8 million in equity capital to match and enable the WEA funding. The WEA funds and the investor funds from Machan, totaling approximately $15.6 million, will support the commercialization of CCF’s technology and the build-out of its first commercial project in Wyoming, the Triangle Unit Renewable Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage (TRECCS) project. After receiving a Class V Underground Injection Control permit from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality in late 2023, the first-of-its-kind TRECCS project is permitted and ready to sequester CO2 and produce renewable natural gas (RNG) at commercial volumes.
Steve Farkas, CCF’s Executive Vice President of Business Development, stated, “We are pleased to be recognized and awarded funds from Wyoming’s EMF program and are grateful for the unwavering support of Machan, our lead investor. These funds come at a critical juncture as we move into the commercial phase of our first project. Wyoming is committed to an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes advancing the carbon economy. The WEA’s record of working with researchers, public and private sector entities, stakeholders, and the international community to help find solutions and move carbon capture technology forward is well established. We are excited to be a strategic partner in these efforts and look forward to building this and many other projects in Wyoming that economically benefit the state, providing a strong return on investment for all Wyomingites.”
In 2022 and 2023, the Wyoming Legislature appropriated a combined $150 million to the Office of the Governor to provide EMF for private or federal funding of research, demonstration, pilot projects or commercial deployment projects related to Wyoming’s energy needs. The Governor has delegated the management of the EMF to the WEA to spur innovation and bring transformative energy projects to Wyoming, leading the way in providing the nation with the energy it requires to solve sustainability challenges without deteriorating reliability or affordability. CCF’s technology and the TRECCS project are highly consistent with the “Decarbonizing the West” initiative that Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon is championing through his leadership of the Western Governors Association. The TRECCS project is one of eight innovative projects awarded EMF by the WEA through two rounds of awards.
CCF’s innovative, field-tested process utilizes non-producing Coal Bed Methane (CBM) wells and the existing infrastructure in the Powder River Basin to permanently sequester carbon dioxide and produce renewable methane through a naturally occurring biogenic process, akin to anaerobic digestion, that occurs in deep, geologic coal formations. The CBM industry was historically a significant economic contributor to Wyoming but has entered an irreversible decline that has rendered much of the $10 billion of existing energy infrastructure and the remaining CBM hydrocarbon resource uneconomic due to historically low natural gas prices. CCF’s technology and process for the sequestration of carbon dioxide and production of renewable natural gas have the potential to restore economic viability to the area’s energy infrastructure, restore jobs, and continue to support Gillette, Johnson, and Campbell Counties, ranchers, and other landowners through payment of mineral royalties, taxes, and surface rents.
CCF’s TRECCS project represents innovative technology developed in Wyoming, that helps the state leverage existing assets and lead the way in renewable natural gas and CCUS. If fully scaled throughout the Powder River Basin, CCF’s technology could enable Wyoming to be the largest producing state for both RNG and sequestered CO2, directly benefiting Wyoming’s energy and agricultural industries, the state’s economy, and its citizens.