TechCrunch: Arbor’s “vegetarian rocket engine” power plant is actually an omnivore

Two years ago, former SpaceX engineers used rocket tech to develop a power plant capable of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with a small asterisk. To draw down CO₂, it burned plant waste, making it a sort of “vegetarian rocket engine” for the grid.

This week, Arbor Energy said it had raised a $55 million Series A led by Lowercarbon Capital and Voyager Ventures on the heels of a partial pivot. Its power plant, rather than sticking to a strict vegetarian diet, is going to be more of an omnivore, capable of burning natural gas in addition to biomass. 

The shift happened this year as electricity demand from data centers has boomed. The existing design was fully capable of powering AI servers, but its reach would be limited by sources of wood and agricultural waste. Natural gas is more widely available.

Arbor still plans to capture CO₂ from the power plant, which uses oxy-combustion, which transforms hydrocarbons into syngas and then burns it in the presence of pure oxygen. The result is CO₂ that doesn’t need much preparation for sequestration.

Because of tax credits, storing the CO₂ will be cheaper than dumping the pollutant into the atmosphere, Arbor spokesperson Patrick Mahoney told TechCrunch. The company does not plan to sell its technology to businesses that don’t plan on capturing the carbon for use or sequestration, he said.