Aera DAC Hub-Kern

Aera Federal LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of California Resources Corporation (CRC), has assembled a consortium of organizations across industry, technology, academia, community, government, and labor, to pursue U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding under its Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs Initiative to create Aera DAC Hub-Kern. The hub will act as a DAC plus storage (DAC+S) solution in CRC’s carbon management business.

By integrating capture technology, lower-carbon energy sources, and existing and new infrastructure to build an innovative lower-carbon supply chain, Aera DAC Hub-Kern is expected to help the Golden State achieve its carbon neutrality goal of annual carbon removal/capture targets of 20 million metric tonnes (MMT) of CO2 equivalent by 2030 and 100 MMT by 2045.

Using fans to capture ambient air, the DAC+S project will move atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to filters that absorb CO2. The collected CO2 will then be compressed and transported for permanent storage deep underground in depleted oil and gas reservoirs at the CarbonFrontier storage site located at the Belridge oilfield in Kern County while providing locally produced energy to California and economic benefits to surrounding communities.

Aera DAC Hub-Kern will not only accelerate the Golden State’s climate leadership but will also focus on surrounding disinvested communities, providing transformative community enhancements including access to clean energy; job training; best practices to increase clean energy enterprise creation and contracting; partnerships to increase parity in clean energy technology access and adoption; and the development of best practices to improve energy resilience.

Key to the development of the Aera DAC Hub-Kern project is a community benefit plan that ensures meaningful community and labor engagement through partnerships with community partners including organizations representing residents, businesses, labor unions and worker organizations, local government, emergency responders and communities with environmental justice concerns throughout Kern County.

Aera Federal LLC signed the DOE Assistance Agreement on May 23, 2024, as the prime recipient as specified in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) instructions. The application was submitted for the Aera DAC Hub-Kern project including sub-recipients acting as project management, engineering, technology, and community subject matter experts.

Phase 0 feasibility and pre-FEED funding is part of the DOE’s Regional DAC Hubs Initiative, as outlined in the $3.5 billion FOA to accelerate the commercialization of CO2 removal via integrated capture from the atmosphere, processing, transport, and secure geologic storage and/or conversion. CO2 from DAC+S hubs will not be used for enhanced oil recovery.

The current project focus is to develop and establish the technical and business feasibility of Aera DAC Hub-Kern with the objectives of evaluating the technical and engineering integration required for a DAC+S Hub ecosystem as well as supporting infrastructure and resource requirements and the development of a community benefit plan. Aera DAC Hub-Kern will also demonstrate the feasibility of the CarbonFrontier storage site for permanent storage of at least 1 million metric tonnes (MMT) of CO2 per year for at least 12 years. 

Tasks that will be performed for successful completion of the project include development of a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP), development of business and financial plans, selection of an anchor DAC technology, performing an integrated preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study on the selected technology, performing a balance of plant (BOP) conceptual design for a 1-MTA hub, and performing a life-cycle analysis (LCA).

Prime recipient

Aera Federal LLC:
Accountable for overall project deliverables; providing overall guidance of the project; business, financial, and CO2 storage plan deliverables; and budget and cost management.

Sub-recipients

Battelle
Team Lead / Co-PI

Mosaic Materials
Technology Provider

CarbonCapture Inc.
Technology Provider

Kiewit
Balance of Plant (BOP) Engineering Provider

Community Benefit Plan Partner
California State University of Bakersfield

Project Updates

DOE Award Signed

Download our Aera DAC Hub and DAC+S fact sheet, available in English (PDF) and Spanish (PDF).