California Resources Corporation's Carbon TerraVault Holdings, LLC (CTV) entered into a storage-only Carbon Dioxide Management Agreement (CDMA) with Yosemite Clean Energy, LLC, a bioenergy development company that specializes in transforming farm and forest wood waste into carbon-negative hydrogen and renewable fuel, which would sequester at least 40,000 metric tons per annum (MTPA) of carbon dioxide (CO2) at CTV carbon storage vaults from a new hydrogen plant to be constructed in Oroville, Northern California. Called the Yosemite Hydrogen Facility, the plant would be expected to produce 24,000 kilograms (KG) per day of hydrogen. Over the next 10 years, Yosemite plans to construct two additional hydrogen facilities in California with similar technical and production characteristics.
The initial Yosemite Hydrogen Facility will utilize dual bed gasification technology to sustainably convert woody biomass waste from local forest and agricultural producers into syngas while the generated CO2 will be captured and then stored permanently underground by CTV. Syngas is a combination of hydrogen, methane, CO2, carbon monoxide, and other trace gases that is used to produce other fuels. California generates an estimated 50 million tons of forest and farm woody biomass waste annually, which when left to burn, decay, and decompose, emits immense amounts of greenhouse gases and black carbon, or soot, which is part of fine particulate air pollution. Yosemite’s plans to sustainably convert biomass into syngas, from which carbon negative hydrogen is produced, is in line with California's leading emission targets as it transitions to a carbon neutral economy.
For more information, read the full press release and presentation (PDF).