{"id":679070,"date":"2025-07-08T15:50:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/frontier-is-helping-arbor-build-a-vegetarian-rocket-engine-to-power-data-centers\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:50:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:50:20","slug":"frontier-is-helping-arbor-build-a-vegetarian-rocket-engine-to-power-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/frontier-is-helping-arbor-build-a-vegetarian-rocket-engine-to-power-data-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontier is helping Arbor build a \u201cvegetarian rocket engine\u201d to power data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Frontier<\/a>, the organization backed by Strip<\/a>e, Google, and Meta, announced Tuesday it is paying startup Arbor Energy<\/a> to remove 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

The deal gives Arbor $41 million to help it build its first commercial-scale power plant in southern Louisiana that will burn waste biomass to generate electricity for a data center. At the same time, it\u2019ll sequester the resulting CO2<\/sub>, shipping it via pipeline to be buried deep underground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are able to market it as two products,\u201d Arbor co-founder and CEO Brad Hartwig told TechCrunch. \u201cWe\u2019re selling carbon-free base load energy as well as net [carbon] removals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The twofer is inherent to the technology<\/a>, which is called BiCRS, or biomass carbon removal and storage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the great things about BiCRS is that you get the capture part for free because plants are drawing down the CO2<\/sub>, and all you have to do is strip it out in and store it,\u201d Hannah Bebbington, head of deployment at Frontier, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

Burning biomass is older than human civilization, but Arbor adds a space age twist to the practice. Hartwig, who previously worked at SpaceX, drew inspiration from rocket turbomachinery in developing Arbor\u2019s power plant. The company\u2019s first facility will generate between five and 10 megawatts of electricity. Hartwig said the company is working to steadily improve the output.<\/p>\n

In the power plant, waste biomass is first transformed into syngas. The startup had previously intended to use an off-the-shelf gasifier, but none of them were up to snuff, so it developed its own. In the gasifier, supercritical CO2<\/sub> \u2014 which is carbon dioxide under immense pressure \u2014 sourced from the power plant itself\u00a0helps dissolve the biomass, releasing hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The syngas and CO2<\/sub> then head to a combustion chamber, where the syngas is burned using pure oxygen. That produces water vapor, heat, and more carbon dioxide. (The presence of CO2<\/sub> in the combustion chamber is by design, Hartwig said, helping to moderate temperatures so the machine\u2019s metal doesn\u2019t melt.)<\/p>\n

The hot gases are then fed through a turbomachinery to generate electricity. Most of the CO2<\/sub> is diverted to a pipeline that\u2019ll transport it for permanent storage, while a portion of it is routed back to the gasifier.<\/p>\n

Hartwig has previously, aptly described the power plant as a \u201cvegetarian rocket engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire system captures 99% of the CO2<\/sub> released by the combustion, far higher than competing methods. And because it\u2019s burning biomass, the process removes carbon from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Bebbington said Frontier estimates there is between one to five gigatons of waste biomass available every year. But not all biomass is created equal. Some needs to be transported longer distances. Others might decompose on a farm field to fertilize it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When vetting any carbon removals, \u201cwe want to be careful that we\u2019re taking that into consideration.\u201d she said. \u201cWe require that every ton delivered also meets sustainable biomass principles in a very clear way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if only one gigaton meets those standards, there\u2019s still a lot of potential for BiCRS and its close cousin, bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS), to make a significant dent in future energy needs.<\/p>\n

For Frontier, Arbor will only burn biomass, ensuring the power plant will remove carbon as required by the deal. Frontier had previously supported Arbor with a pre-purchase agreement.<\/p>\n

Arbor\u2019s power plant could theoretically burn any source of hydrocarbons, including natural gas. \u201cThe system is specifically designed to be fuel flexible,\u201d Hartwig said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like BECCS to be a major player for data centers, industrial electrification, grid resilience,\u201d Hartwig said. \u201cBut if any new fossil assets that are built, we\u2019d like those to all be zero emission as well. Let\u2019s capture all of those emissions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frontier, the organization backed by Stripe, Google, and Meta, announced Tuesday it is paying startup Arbor Energy to remove 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide by the end of the decade. The deal gives Arbor $41 million to help it build its first commercial-scale power plant in southern Louisiana that will burn waste biomass to generate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":679071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Arbor_OxiCombustion.jpg?resize=1200,675","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[75885,157547,157548,145470,156802,154032,77143,153835,61965],"class_list":["post-679070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-enterprise","tag-arbor-energy","tag-biomass","tag-carbon-capture","tag-carbon-capture-and-storage","tag-carbon-removal","tag-climate","tag-data-centers","tag-frontier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}