Frontier Infrastructure Holdings (Frontier) and Carbonfuture have announced a new partnership to create and market carbon-removal credits from CO₂ produced by ethanol plants across the US’ Mountain West and Texas.

Under the agreement, Frontier will handle the physical CO₂ while Carbonfuture will help sell the resulting credits. According to reports, this deal now represents the largest ethanol-based bioenergy carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) carbon dioxide removal (CDR) deal ever signed.

Under the deal, 750,000 carbon credits will be made available from “Project Spirit,” which is Frontier’s ethanol BECCS initiative. These credits will be made available for purchase by corporate and institutional buyers via Carbonfuture once active.

The idea is that CO₂ will be absorbed from corn. This corn is then harvested and fermented to make ethanol, a process that releases relatively pure CO₂.

Typically, this CO₂ is released back into the atmosphere, but under Project Spirit, it is captured at source. The gas is then compressed and liquefied ready for transport in special railcars to Wyoming.

Carbon storage from corn

It is then injected underground in deep geological storage vessels. The process will be actively monitored, and credits are issued for sale for the net quantity permanently removed.

“The removal will be certified under Puro.earth’s Geologically Stored Carbon (GSC) Methodology, with monitoring, reporting, and verification provided by Mangrove Systems,” Frontier explains in its press release.

Ethanol fermentation, it turns out, is attractive for carbon capture because it produces an unusually concentrated CO₂ stream (around 99% in some systems). So it generally requires less complicated separation than capturing dilute CO₂ from a power-station exhaust.

It is also considered “biogenic,” meaning the CO₂ is removed from the atmosphere by plants rather than “cleaning up” extra carbon released from burning things like fossil fuels.

“This partnership agreement marks an important step forward for our CO₂-by-rail initiative and for the ethanol producers we serve,” said Steven Lowenthal, Co-CEO of Frontier, in a press release.

“Carbonfuture has built a trusted platform for durable carbon removal, and partnering with them gives our customers a practical, near-term pathway to achieving their net zero goals through a trustworthy infrastructure,” he added.

Not entirely carbon negative

“Buyers are looking for durable carbon removal they can trust, at scale,” said Julie Mansfield, Head of Global Buyer Growth, Carbonfuture.

“By bringing Frontier’s ethanol BECCS supply to market, this partnership expands access to verifiable, durable removals while reinforcing the rigorous standards needed to scale the sector,” he added.

It is important to note that this is not yet a completed removal project, nor does the announcement say that all 750,000 credits have already been purchased. According to reports, the first CO₂ removals are expected to begin sometime in late 2027.

It is also important to note that the process will not be entirely net-negative in terms of CO₂ emissions. Growing the corn in the first place requires the use of fertilizers, diesel-powered farming machinery, and energy to process and ferment the corn.

Transportation via rail and other parasitic electrical costs are involved for processing the CO₂ and injection underground are also involved. That all said, this will prove attractive to carbon credit purchasers when it finally does go live later next year.

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Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. (Atlas) has announced that it intends to expand its autonomous truck operations in the US Permian Basin from 28 to 100 by mid-2027. The company will work with Kodiak AI, Inc. (Kodiak) to make this ambition a reality using its physical artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous driving technology.

What that means in practice is retrofitting or upfitting trucks with a package of sensors, controls, cameras, and other hardware to enable them to be operated autonomously using an AI “driver.”

According to Atlas, the new trucks will be used to expand operations at its second load-out point along its 42-mile (68 km) “Dune Express” sand conveyor system. This system will help Atlas become more responsive to customer needs for the transport and supply of proppant in the region.

Proppant, in case you are unaware, is a special grade of sand used by oil and gas companies during hydraulic fracturing. The sand is pumped underground to keep the cavities created by fracturing open, allowing oil and gas to flow freely.

Delivering sand without drivers

As you can appreciate, that requires enormous quantities of the stuff. What’s more, transporting it from mines or storage sites to drilling locations involves thousands of repetitive truck journeys, often on remote, dusty and relatively predictable routes.

The load-out points refer to strategic locations along the so-called “Dune Express” where this sand is loaded onto trucks. At present, Atlas explains, autonomous trucks have been used from one load-out point at a time.

The addition of another (one in Texas and one in New Mexico) will enable them to cover a wider area and improve customer order fulfillment. According to Atlas, since incorporating driverless trucks into its operations, they have carried approximately 7,000 loads totaling around 450,000 tons of sand over 23,500 “driverless hours.”

As for the trucks in question, they are entirely driverless but with an important distinction. To date, these trucks have tended to operate on controlled oilfield logistics networks, or private roads, not public highways or lanes.

That is considerably easier from an AI-training perspective than allowing autonomous trucks to travel freely through ordinary cities or mixed public traffic. The next major step is therefore operating on public roads, which Atlas and Kodiak say they expect to begin by early 2027, subject to regulatory and operational approval.

Fleet to increase to 100 by mid-2027

That would greatly expand where the trucks can deliver. “This partnership with Kodiak is a critical part of the Atlas strategy to transform oilfield sand logistics through innovation,” said John Turner, CEO and President of Atlas Energy Solutions, in a press release.

“Our mission is to seek critical energy infrastructure with inefficiencies, then engineer solutions that improve efficiency, reduce risk and enhance our customers’ operational success,” he added.

“Together, Atlas and Kodiak have deployed the world’s largest fleet of driverless big-rig trucks,” said Don Burnette, Founder and CEO, Kodiak.

“We’ve demonstrated that autonomous trucking is delivering meaningful results today. Our expanding partnership, which now covers two unique locations, is creating a blueprint for how autonomy can transform logistics by improving efficiency, increasing productivity, and delivering lasting value for customers at commercial scale,” he added.

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