House approves IRA changes, hydrogen at risk

The Low Carbon Briefing

May 23, 2025

Quiet week, most teams must be in Washington talking to Senators. No development activity has been detected.

8 Rivers, in collaboration with Siemens Energy, has partnered with Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC) to conduct a technical feasibility study for a proposed power plant project - either at the Navajo Mine located on the Navajo Nation or at a Powder River Basin location
The project will leverage 8 Rivers' proprietary Allam-Fetvedt Cycle (AFC) power cycle technology and direct-fired supercritical CO₂ turbines to deliver ultra-low-carbon coal power production with inherent carbon capture. This process enables decarbonized baseload power
The AFC would be deployed in stages to provide power for up to 1,000 megawatts of equivalent generation at an NTEC site utilizing NTEC coal. Once operational, the project aims to deliver an estimated one gigawatt of reliable, dispatchable base-load power while capturing approximately 8 million tons of CO₂ per year.
This agreement extends a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NTEC and 8 Rivers signed in 2024, under which both companies announced intentions to jointly seek

JP Morgan will buy 450,000 tons of CO2 credits from CO280’s Pulp and Paper CCS project after Microsoft’s 3.86 million ton deal
The CDR’s are <$200/ton which signals biomass-based removals can compete on cost and scale than mechanical removals such as Direct-Air-Capture
Microsoft and JP Morgan’s offtake may provide enough financial support for an FID - depending on CO280’s uncommitted volume strategy

Graphitic Energy, formerly C-Zero, and Technip Energies form a collaboration to develop and deploy Graphitic’s methane pyrolysis technology
Graphitic commissioned their pilot plant near San Antonio earlier this year that produces 1,000 kg of hydrogen per day along with synthetic graphite - ultimately for commercial use
Both companies plan to enter a licensing agreement later this year for Technip to deploy globally

Envision Energy plans to develop one of the largest green methanol facilities in the world in Chifeng, China
The facility will produce 300,000 metric tonnes per year of green ammonia - sourced from a 500 MW electrolyzer and biogenic CO2, intending to qualify for Europe’s clean energy RFNBO program
China is becoming a leading candidate for green fuels due to the low cost of renewables and cheaper electrolyzers
Marubeni has also indicated offtake from ExxonMobil’s Blue Ammonia project to compete for Japan’s Contract for Difference (CfD) scheme.

Hydrogen and e-fuel developers Power2X and ErasmoPower2X have signed an agreement to develop a large-scale e-methanol project in Spain with renewable energy company, Magnon
Magnon will oversee the integration of carbon capture into its existing biomass plant, while Power2X and ErasmoPower2X will manage the hydrogen supply integration
The RFNBO-compliant facility will utilize 380,000 tons of CO2 per year to produce 200,000 metric tons of e-methanol