5 area companies awarded state pollution-reduction grants

DENVER — Grants totaling $13.9 million have been awarded by the Colorado Energy Office for industrial-emissions reduction initiatives, and the recipients included five companies in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley.

The awards announced Wednesday will support implementation of six projects and one study that are expected to reduce annual emissions equivalent to removing 14,507 gas-powered cars from Colorado roads. The current round of awards brings the state’s total investment in industrial-emissions reduction initiatives to more than $73 million since 2023.

“Protecting our environment means investing in data-driven strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a prepared statement. “We are encouraging the use of new technologies to reduce pollution, like carbon management and methane detection, that will make the air we breathe cleaner and protect our state for generations to come.”

The current round of Clean Air Program funding focused on technological innovation to reduce onsite emissions, while the Colorado Industrial Tax Credit Offering grants targeted a broader set of industrial emissions initiatives. Projects include methane detection, carbon management and battery energy storage systems, with several located in Colorado’s ozone nonattainment area.

“Industry and manufacturing are a leading source of greenhouse-gas emissions and other harmful air pollution in Colorado,” Energy Office Executive Director Will Toor said in a news release. “We are already seeing great progress reducing pollution from industrial facilities, and our ongoing support for these initiatives will move us closer to achieving our climate goals while ensuring cleaner air across the state.”

The Energy Office awarded a total of $11.1 million in refundable CITCO tax credits for the following projects:

• TPSR Solar 16 LLC, based in Weld County, will receive $1,055,738 for installation of a grid-connected battery energy storage system to meet backup power needs and reduce peak demand charges at a large-scale industrial manufacturing plant. This project will demonstrate the viability of replacing a fossil-fuel generator with such a system.
• Underground Manufacturing LLC, a Longmont-based company doing business as Vertpack, will receive $360,627 for adding a new high-efficiency printer to its commercial packaging manufacturing facility, which will reduce the facility’s electricity consumption and allow customers to place smaller orders with faster turnaround times, reducing excess inventory and waste.
• Charm Industrial Inc., based in Fort Lupton, will receive $8 million for installing a fifth-generation pyrolysis pad to convert forest and agricultural biomass residues into bio-oil for permanent storage deep underground, preventing release of carbon into the atmosphere and reducing wildfire risk.
• New Belgium Brewing Co. Inc. will receive $699,595 for replacing the aging ammonia refrigeration system at its Fort Collins brewery with a new energy-efficient system, which will substantially reduce electricity consumption and improve safety and reliability.
• Origen Carbon Solutions Inc., based in Windsor, will receive $1 million to conduct a front-end engineering design study for a potential first commercial zero-emission lime facility at the Great Western Industrial Park. The study builds on previous studies and will help confirm the proposed facility’s design, refine its cost estimates and lay the groundwork for construction.

The Energy Office also awarded a total of $2.8 million in CAP grants to technology providers who will then secure a location for implementation. Awardees are:

• Grand Valley Instrumentation, $101,400 for methane detection technology to reduce landfill methane emissions.
• Vycarb, $2,713,200 for carbon-management technology to reduce emissions from wastewater treatment.

The Energy Office opened applications for another round of CAP funding on Tuesday and will host a CAP informational webinar at 1 p.m. next Wednesday. CITCO opens applications twice annually, with the next cycle opening on Nov. 1. CEO will host a CITCO informational webinar at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 4.

CEO recently published an Industrial Decarbonization Blueprint report, which evaluates the current direct sources of greenhouse-gas emissions from manufacturing and natural-gas production and processing and identifies short- and long-term strategies to achieve net-zero industrial greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, including potential pathways to cost effectively reduce industrial emissions by 60% by 2040.

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