Cowboy Clean Fuels Launches Verified Carbon Credits in Market Breakthrough

DENVER, CO – April 15, 2026

In a move poised to challenge the status quo of the carbon removal industry, Denver-based climate-tech firm Cowboy Clean Fuels (CCF) today announced that its carbon credits are verified, registered, and immediately available for purchase. The announcement marks a significant milestone, offering corporate buyers access to one of the first commercially operating platforms that simultaneously delivers permanent carbon sequestration and produces carbon-neutral renewable natural gas (RNG).

For years, the voluntary carbon market has been hampered by a critical challenge: a scarcity of high-quality, durable carbon removal credits that are available now, not at some future date. Many projects require buyers to make pre-purchases based on projections, a model fraught with risk and uncertainty. Cowboy Clean Fuels aims to solve this problem with tangible, data-backed credits generated from its active Triangle Unit project in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

"We set out to build something the carbon market has never seen, a single operation that durably and permanently sequesters carbon while also producing clean energy through one integrated process," said Ryan Waddington, CEO of Cowboy Clean Fuels, in a statement. He emphasized that the company is delivering results today, not a concept that "may theoretically deliver sometime in the future."

Rebuilding Trust Through Rigorous Verification

At the heart of CCF’s market entry is a multi-layered, independent verification process designed to build buyer confidence and combat accusations of "greenwashing" that have plagued the wider carbon market. The company has secured validation from two key players in the carbon integrity space: Absolute Climate and Climate Vault Solutions.

Absolute Climate, a firm dedicated to creating clear and consistent measurement standards, has certified CCF's projects under its new Absolute Carbon Standard (ACS). This framework is designed to meticulously track all carbon flows within a project, providing what the firm calls an "atmospherically consistent net removal" that buyers can trust. The credits are then issued and tracked on Evident's C-Capsule registry, ensuring full traceability.

"Absolute Climate was started to support next-generation carbon removal companies accurately track the carbon flows their projects generate," said Peter Minor, Co-founder and CEO of Absolute Climate. "Cowboy Clean Fuels is exactly the kind of project our certification process was designed for, and this partnership is an important step toward building the quality infrastructure the market needs to build buyer confidence."

Further bolstering its credibility, CCF’s Triangle Unit project was selected for the portfolio of Climate Vault Solutions. This marketplace connects institutional buyers with high-integrity carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. Before any project is listed, it must pass a rigorous, multi-phase technical review by the independent Climate Vault Technology Experts Chamber, a panel of leading scientists and academics chaired by former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz. This separation of scientific evaluation from commercial activity is a core tenet of Climate Vault's model, ensuring that only scientifically sound projects reach buyers.

From Coal Seams to Clean Energy: A Dual-Benefit Innovation

What truly sets Cowboy Clean Fuels apart is its patented technology, a pathway known as Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage + Renewable Natural Gas (BiCRS + RNG). Developed over a decade of research at the University of Wyoming, the process represents a novel fusion of geology, microbiology, and energy production.

The technology works by injecting agricultural biomass—in this case, sugar beet molasses—into deep, often depleted, coal bed formations. Instead of remaining dormant, these legacy fossil fuel assets are repurposed into bioreactors. Indigenous microbes within the coal seams metabolize the biomass, naturally converting it into a mixture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄).

Due to the natural geology and hydrostatic pressure of the deep formations, the CO₂ preferentially adsorbs onto the surface of the coal, where it is permanently and durably sequestered. The methane, which is not as strongly adsorbed, is then produced to the surface, processed, and sold as pipeline-ready renewable natural gas. This transforms a potential liability—aging energy infrastructure—into a dual-purpose climate solution.

"There's a powerful symmetry in what Cowboy Clean Fuels has built: carbon permanently returned to the coal bed formations it was extracted from, while the same process produces clean energy to help displace fossil gas as energy demand surges," stated Kyle Kornack, CEO of Climate Vault Solutions. He noted that the combination of geological permanence, immediate commercial operation, and clean energy co-production is "genuinely rare" in the current CDR market.

Solving the Market's Availability Gap

For corporate sustainability officers and ESG investors, the search for credible carbon removal credits is often a frustrating exercise in due diligence and long-term waiting. Cowboy Clean Fuels' announcement directly addresses this "availability gap." With credits already generated, verified, and listed on a registry, the company is offering a tangible product, not a future promise.

This "buy today, retire today" model drastically reduces diligence time and risk for buyers. The independent validation from both Absolute Climate and Climate Vault Solutions means many of the hard technical and scientific questions have already been answered by trusted third parties. This allows corporations to report their climate action with a higher degree of confidence, backed by a clear, auditable impact narrative for sustainability reports and stakeholder communications.

The company's first commercial project, the Triangle Unit in Wyoming, has already received its permits and commenced operations in early 2024. Bolstered by a recent $13 million Series B funding round and support from the Wyoming Energy Authority, the project is on track to reach full scale by the end of 2025. At that point, it is expected to sequester approximately 180,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent and produce 0.7 billion cubic feet of RNG annually, making it a significant player in both the carbon removal and clean energy markets.

This progress is underpinned by a supportive regulatory landscape. Wyoming has established itself as a leader in carbon management policy, with clear laws governing pore space ownership and long-term liability. Furthermore, federal incentives like the Section 45Q tax credit, which provides a performance-based credit for captured and stored carbon, create a strong economic foundation for projects like the Triangle Unit. As the project scales, its performance will be closely watched by corporate buyers and climate experts alike, serving as a critical test case for the future of integrated climate solutions.