Cowboy Clean Fuels partners with Upton company to transport feedstock for carbon capture project

GILLETTE (WNE) — Cowboy Clean Fuels, a climate tech and energy transition company based in Campbell County, has partnered with Tiger Transfer, LLC, to support Cowboy Clean Fuel’s feedstock transportation in Wyoming.
The collaboration centers on seven acres leased at the Upton Logistics Center, which is owned and operated by Tiger Transfer.
The newly leased site includes a rail spur with a 13-car capacity and a digital scale, enabling Cowboy to efficiently store and transport molasses and other feedstock from sugar beet refineries across the Northern Rockies and Great Plains.
The molasses will then be trucked to Cowboy’s Triangle Unit project location in southern Campbell County. Since commencing commercial operations in June, Cowboy has already injected more than 1,000 metric tons of molasses into the ground and is poised to scale operations significantly in 2025 and beyond.
Cowboy Clean Fuels, formed in 2020, combines highly durable carbon dioxide removal with the generation of carbon-negative renewable natural gas from depleted coal-bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin.
The project injects molasses into coal seams more than 1,000 feet below the surface. Microbes in the coal seams consume the molasses, producing renewable methane and carbon dioxide.
The carbon dioxide is permanently captured and stored in the coal seams, and the renewable natural gas is brought to the surface and transported using existing pipelines.
In January, the Wyoming Energy Authority provided $7.8 million in matching funds for the Triangle Unit project, which has been operating commercially since June. Cowboy Clean Fuels is buying molasses from sugar beet refineries in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and Idaho.
The Upton Logistics Center is strategically located on BNSF’s double-track mainline, making it an ideal partner for Cowboy Clean Fuel’s feedstock transportation needs.
Once it’s operating at full scale, Cowboy’s Triangle Unit project could process up to 250,000 metric tons of feedstock a year.
This story was published on December 17, 2024.