Economic Stimulus Money for Carbon Capture Projects in the U.S

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Department of Energy is granting $612 million for three carbon capture and storage projects located in Illinois, Louisiana, and Texas. The projects are intended to test the feasibility of capturing and storing carbon emissions from industrial sources on a large scale, leading to eventual commercial deployment.

According to the Department of Energy, the projects are designed to store carbon dioxide from industrial sources in deep saline formations underground, or to enhance oil recovery. The projects are expected to capture and store 6.5 million tons of CO2 per year, which would be equivalent to taking nearly one million cars off the road. The carbon dioxide used to enhance oil recovery could increase oil production in the U.S. by more than 10 million barrels per year by 2015.

The $612 million in Department of Energy grants will be supplemented with $368 million in investments from the private sector. The projects will be managed by National Energy Technology Laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Illinois

In Decatur, Illinois, Archer Daniels Midland is working with the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium, the Illinois State Geological Survey, Schlumberger Carbon Services, Dow Chemical, and Alstom Power on a project to capture and sequester one million tons of CO2 per year from ethanol and cogeneration plants. The CO2 will be stored in a saline reservoir in the Mt. Simon Sandstone formation. The U.S. Department of Energy has granted $99 million for this project.

Archer Daniels Midland reports that a 7,200 foot-deep injection well has been drilled near the Decatur ethanol plan. The project includes a facility for CO2 dehydration and compression and a pipeline to transport the compressed CO2 from the ethanol plant to the well. The CO2 will be injected into the sandstone formation at a rate of 1,000 metric tons per day. In the Decatur cogeneration plant, the company is investigating the potential for capturing and storing post-combustion CO2 that has been separated from flue gas. If the project proves feasible, an additional 2,100 metric tons of CO2 per day could be injected into the well.

Louisiana

As reported in The Times-Picayune, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Leucadia Energy LLC will work with Denbury Onshore, General Electric, Haldor Topsoe, Black & Veatch, Turner Industries, and the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology on a project to capture 4.5 million tons CO2 per year from a co-generation petroleum coke-to-chemicals plant, with a $260 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The CO2 will be transported by pipeline to the West Hastings oilfield in Texas, where it will be used in enhanced oil recovery.

Leucadia Energy and Denbury Onshore are also working on a project to capture and sequester CO2 from a petroleum coke-to-substitute natural gas plant owned by a Leucadia affiliate in Moss Point, Mississippi. This project received a grant for $840,000.

Texas

As reported on the Environmental News Network, Air Products and Chemicals received a $253 million grant for its industrial carbon capture and sequestration project in Port Arthur, Texas. The company plans to build and operate a system to capture CO2 from two steam methane reformers in the Valero Refinery in Port Arthur.

Air Products and Chemicals will work with Denbury Onshore LLC, Valero Energy Corporation, and the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology to capture and sequester one million tons of CO2 per year. The captured CO2 will be transported through a pipeline and will be used for enhanced oil recovery in the West Hastings oilfield.

Air Products and Chemicals reports that it is currently working on several carbon capture and storage demonstration projects around the world. The company has an agreement with Vattenfall AB, a leading energy company in Europe, to install its technology at an oxyfuel carbon capture and sequestration facility in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany. Air Products is also constructing a CO2 purification system for a boiler facility in Windsor, Connecticut, and is working on an advanced CO2 capture technology with gasification in collaboration with the Alberta Energy Research Institute.

Sources:
Air Products and DOE Sign Agreement for Carbon Capture and Storage Project in Texas - Air Products
Carbon-sequestration projects put innovative emissions-reduction technology to the test - Archer Midland Daniels
Jennifer Gorton, "Air Products and Chemicals" - Environmental News Network
Rebecca Mowbray, "Local projects get stimulus money for carbon capture and storage" - The Times- Picayune
Secretary Chu Announces Nearly $1 Billion Public-Private Investment in Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage - U.S. Department of Energy