Spokane, Washington, explores carbon capture technology at WTE facility

The city of Spokane, Washington, is considering a $650,000 study by carbon capture company CarbonQuest to test its technology at the city’s waste-to-energy facility. 

The facility—the only one of its kind in the state—has been scrutinized by the local community and state leaders, largely because of its emissions, The Columbian reports.

A carbon cap-and-trade program under Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, which survived a citizen initiative in November 2024, could require Spokane to pay $2.5 million to $8 million annually beginning in 2027 to account for the facility’s emissions. 

The city lobbied the state Legislature in 2023 to fund an emissions life-cycle analysis, which found that incineration releases more carbon dioxide than landfilling, but not when factoring in electricity generated, recyclable metals recovered and other factors. 

As reported by The Columbian, the Legislature still hasn’t agreed to an exemption for the waste-to-energy facility, leaving the city with dwindling time to avoid potentially devastating costs. To prepare for the situation, the city is using funds generated from the carbon credit market to study whether carbon capture technology would be feasible at the facility. 

According to Spokane’s 2019 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, solid waste activities produced 111,560 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, with waste-to-energy operations accounting for 89 percent of that number, while landfilling only accounted for 7 percent. 

The city hopes the carbon capture project could serve as a case study for waste-to-energy facilities across the county and potentially abroad, Anna Pavlova, senior vice president for strategy, market development and sustainability, tells The Columbian. 

“The waste to energy industry in general hasn’t seen much carbon capture, even though that’s seen as the one solution to their carbon emissions,” Pavlova says. “Our hope is we can demonstrate it’s feasible, we can capture emissions, we can continue the plant running—because otherwise that garbage will go into a landfill—and we want to use that as a case study for other companies.”

If approved by city council, the study would determine the viability of carbon capture at the waste-to-energy facility, draft up designs and explore the best ways to dispose of the concentrated CO₂ once it’s been removed.

Pavlova says Eastern Washington is well-suited for CO₂ disposal, which typically is stored in deep basalt wells or magnesium formations created from the use of natural gas that can turn the carbon into solid minerals such as magnesite. 

CarbonQuest’s projects in New York state have been able to move the captured CO₂ for use in concrete, where it can be stored permanently or put to commercial use, but Washington currently lacks the carrots and sticks that make that market viable, she added.

Officials are still optimistic about the potential to sell CO₂ for use in concrete, fertilizer or sustainable aviation fuel, which is a potential use being explored by local startup Twelve.