How a New York carbon removal facility is improving American food and energy security

On a sunny afternoon in upstate New York, Travertine Technologies unveiled its new 11,000 square foot demonstration plant, which will start operations this month.

I joined investors, town council members, global cement and phosphate producers, state energy officers, and engineers who had all gathered in Ontario, New York (just east of Rochester), to commemorate the occasion and learn more about Travertine's facility, an ambitious two-year project that — best of all — was completed on time and on budget.

The facility will employ eight team members on-site and represents a major step towards commercial scale of Traverine's process that removes carbon through the recycling and repurposing of mineral waste.

From academia to industry

Less than four years ago, Travertine founder and CEO Dr. Laura Lammers was a faculty scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. She is a well-known expert on carbon mineralization, a geologic process in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and synthesized into mineral form.

Lammers saw an opportunity to accelerate this process by coupling it with some of the world’s largest industries: sulfuric acid production for critical element extraction, and cement. She founded Travertine, raised a seed round of venture capital, started assembling a team, and began building an R&D facility in Boulder, Colorado.

This Ontario facility represents a 100x scaleup of Travertine’s technology, and a new way to spur domestic economic growth and improve industrial practices while removing carbon dioxide from the air.

The need to onshore phosphate mining in America

Phosphate (the ionized, oxygenated form of the mineral phosphorus) is a key component in producing fertilizer and batteries, making it important for food and energy security. But part of the challenge of phosphate extraction in the U.S. is dealing with the gypsum waste that results.

The federal government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on remediation and management of gypsum stacks from phosphoric acid production. Hundreds of millions of tons of gypsum remain landfilled in huge stacks hundreds of feet tall that span the horizon.

As a result, the U.S. imports the remainder of our phosphates from India, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and China, and no major American phosphate plants have been built since 1975. This puts America in a vulnerable position competitively. It also places a burden on American phosphate companies who want to increase production to meet demand while handling gypsum waste in an environmentally forward way.

Critical elements in food and energy security

Here’s how Travertine’s technology works: they take gypsum, a byproduct created during phosphate mining and production, and expose it to carbon dioxide in the ambient air, which is captured via direct air capture. After the gypsum grabs the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they are able to use their process to capture the carbon dioxide, while producing sulfuric acid and calcium carbonate.

The Travertine process is unique in that it solves a waste problem for critical element production as well as a raw materials problem for the cement industry, and it simultaneously captures and permanently stores carbon dioxide directly from the air. Beyond this demonstration facility, Travertine’s technology also has wide-ranging applications for the extraction of various types of minerals, including lithium, copper, and nickel. 

Travertine’s impact on phosphate production can help reshore a critical American industry during a time when demand for battery-grade phosphate is growing by 40% each year. And the opportunity for carbon removal is clear: If the current global refining process shifted to Travertine’s approach, it would result in more than one billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide removed or avoided over 10 years. 

Phosphorus isn't on the Department of Interior (DOI)'s current critical minerals list — but it should be. Given its importance to food and energy security, phosphorus should be included not just on the DOI list but also those of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC), Department of Energy, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

It's evident that modern waste management methods such as Travertine's would enhance the goals of The Mining Act of 1872, which governs mining today.. By modernizing the Mining Act to take new technologies into account, the NEDC could and should recognize carbon removal as a waste management method, and encourage mine operators to evaluate its potential on mine sites. 

You can find our policy recommendations on how to better integrate carbon removal into mining hereopens in a new tab.

Public-private partnerships lead to demonstration scale

Travertine’s story — a National Lab scientist took an idea from research to demonstration scale — has succeeded in attracting the attention of global phosphate mining and cement corporations, private investors, and the state’s energy office.

Crucially, this facility was supported byopens in a new tab a $3.2 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Builders Visionopens in a new tab, an impact platform and venture-capital firm that provided $7.5 million in private funding.

Officials from NYSERDA and Builders Vision spoke at the ribbon cutting to show their support for the project. Also speaking at the ceremony was Brent Vesa, Technical Director at Sabin Metals, one of the largest precious metal refiners and recyclers in America. Sabin sees Travertine's process as a new option for using more sustainable sulfuric acid for its business. 

Ben Aman, the town supervisor of Ontario, NY, told the assembled crowd about research and technical universities in the Rochester area and the highly skilled workforce, some of whom are now employed at the Travertine facility.

After opening remarks, NYSERDA's VP of Innovation, Brandon Owens, cut the ribbon, and the facility was declared officially open. Attendees were invited to explore the building and study posters explaining Travertine's process. The facility will produce 125 metric tons per year of sulfuric acid, 125 metric tons per year of calcium carbonate, and 55 metric tons per year of gross carbon dioxide sequestration.

As proud members of the Travertine team mingled with attendees, it was easy to see the promise of Travertine's private-public partnership model: Public funding came in to de-risk and validate their scientific approach, which in turn attracted private investment, allowing Travertine to make a critical step on its path to commercial scale. Today, Travertine has the opportunity to revitalize a domestic industry while having a clear impact on carbon emissions.