Vycarb Wins $2.7 Million Colorado Carbon Capture Grant

The Colorado Energy Office grant will fund a carbon capture and storage system that skips an intermediate purification step.

Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Environmental

Vector-style editorial illustration of a single plain cylindrical column on flat terrain under a clear sky, with a pipe running along the base. — The Colorado Energy Office awarded Vycarb a grant of up to $2.7 million to build a carbon capture and storage system that stores low-purity CO2 without first purifying it. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Live Poll

Should state governments fund carbon capture projects to cut industrial pollution?

Vycarb received a grant of up to $2,713,200 from the Colorado Energy Office under the Clean Air Program. The company will design, install, and operate a carbon capture and storage system in Colorado.

Why it matters

Capturing and purifying CO2 before storage has made geologic storage sites rarely economically viable. Vycarb's approach captures and stores low-purity CO2 without that step, which the grant is intended to help deploy at an operating industrial site.

The award of up to $2,713,200 comes from a $25 million Clean Air Program budget to be spent over six years. Vycarb's capture capacity and operating costs have not been disclosed in the available extraction.

The players

Colorado Energy Office

The Colorado state agency that awarded the grant to Vycarb under the Clean Air Program.

Vycarb

A company whose technology captures and stores low-purity CO2 without an intermediate purification step, first demonstrated using seawater.

The details

Vycarb was selected through a review by the Clean Air Program team and the Grant Review Committee. Grant recipients were required to demonstrate additionality and to cut emissions beyond what the law requires, and Vycarb is the program's first carbon management awardee that captures and stores industrial emissions.

Six years: the period over which the $25 million Clean Air Program budget will be spent.

Big Picture

Under Colorado's Clean Air Program, the Vycarb award is the first carbon management grant to fund industrial emissions capture and storage. It extends the program beyond its earlier emissions-reduction focus into geologic storage of industrial CO2.

For Colorado residents, the grant signals public funding for industrial emissions reduction that goes beyond legal minimums. Its practical effect on local air quality or energy costs is not described in the source.

The takeaway

Public grant programs are beginning to back carbon capture approaches that avoid costly purification steps. Watch for the first operating deployment at an industrial Colorado site to see whether the approach performs at scale.