Mote to build wood waste to hydrogen plant

Mote is establishing its first facility to convert wood waste into hydrogen fuel while capturing, utilising, and sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from its process.

With the engineering work of their first facility underway, it expects to produce around 7,000 tonnes of carbon-negative hydrogen and remove 150,000 metric tonnes of CO2 from the air annually. Located near Bakersfield, Mote expects to start hydrogen production starting by 2024.

The facility aims to assist California in recycling the 54 million tonnes/year of wood waste generated. Mote uses wood waste from farms, forestry, and other resources where it would otherwise be open-air burned for disposal, left to decompose, or sent to a landfill. Through gasification and subsequent treatment processes, the remaining CO2 is extracted and permanently placed deep underground for ecologically safe storage.

Mote is in discussions with carbon utilisation company CarbonCure Technologies on the potential of permanently storing its CO2 in concrete via CarbonCure’s carbon removal technologies, deployed in hundreds of CO2 mineralisation systems at concrete plants worldwide.

Mote is joined by Fluor Corporation and SunGas Renewables, Inc. to develop its new plant. The engineering firm Fluor will support the integration of proven equipment into the facility. In addition, SunGas Renewables (a subsidiary of GTI International) has entered into an Engineering Services Agreement with Mote to provide its gasification systems to the Mote California Central Valley Project.

Mac Kennedy, CEO of Mote, said, “With this new facility, Mote is laying the groundwork for affordable hydrogen offerings on a global scale while also supercharging natural carbon removal processes.”