DOE Awards First Large-scale Carbon Sequestration Projects
On Oct. 9, Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the first three large-scale carbon sequestration projects in the United States and the largest single set in the world to date.
The three projects -- Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership; Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership; and Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration -- will conduct large-volume tests for the storage of one million or more tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep saline reservoirs. DOE plans to invest $197 million over ten years, subject to annual appropriations from Congress, for the projects, whose estimated value including partnership cost share is $318 million.
These projects are the first of several sequestration demonstration projects planned through DOE's Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships.
The formations to be tested during this third phase of the regional partnerships program are recognized as the most promising of the geologic basins in the United States. Collectively, these formations have the potential to store more than one hundred years of CO2 emissions from all major point sources in North America.
The projects include participation from 27 states and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. They will demonstrate the entire CO2 injection process?pre-injection characterization, injection process monitoring, and post-injection monitoring?at large volumes to determine the ability of different geologic settings to permanently store CO2.
For more information, visit http://www.fossil.energy.gov.
This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.