Mote Inc. on Aug. 10 said it has received $1.2 million in grant funding to establish its second biomass-to-hydrogen and carbon-sequestration plant in partnership with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, a California public power utility.
As Mote’s hydrogen offtake partner for the second facility in Sacramento, SMUD and Mote have been collaborating on the project development.
The grant funding is from the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Conservation and the California Department of Forestry.
Upon completion, the facility would produce approximately 21,000 metric tons per year of carbon-negative hydrogen for use in thermal power generation and transportation.
The plant would also sequester over 450,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The project is supported by forestry stakeholders due to Mote’s capacity to create value from large amounts of wood waste, Mote said.
The project can utilize up to 300,000 metric tons per year of forest residues and wood waste from regional forest management programs. This waste would otherwise be open-air burned, left to decompose, or sent to a landfill.
Similar to its first project near Bakersfield, Calif., this second plant will integrate with carbon capture and geological sequestration methods to produce carbon-negative hydrogen.
Using gasification and a proprietary integration of proven technology, Mote can process woody waste from farms, forestry, and urban sources. The remaining carbon dioxide from the process is captured and permanently placed underground in saline aquifers for ecologically safe storage.
Mote said it has received a formal invitation to submit a Part II application to the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office Title 17 Clean Energy Financing program, which can offer loan guarantees up to 80 percent of eligible project costs for innovative energy projects like Mote's facilities.
Bakersfield construction is expected to begin in 2025 and target full operational capacity by 2027.
Additionally, Mote is a member of the ARCHES community and their application for the DOE's Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub grant.
DOE’s invitation to submit a Part II application is not an assurance that DOE will invite the applicant into the due diligence and term sheet negotiation process, that DOE will offer a term sheet to the applicant, or that the terms and conditions of a term sheet will be consistent with the terms proposed by the applicant, Mote said.
“The foregoing matters are wholly dependent on the results of the DOE review and evaluation of a Part II Application and DOE’s determination of whether to proceed,” Mote said.
The American Public Power Association has issued a report that is available for free to members that provides a perspective on where the emerging hydrogen market is in the U.S. and globally, what is driving the growing interest in hydrogen and what obstacles are preventing hydrogen technology from being able to scale-up.
