DOE Awards $251 Million to 12 CO2 Infrastructure Projects

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. Department of Energy on May 17 awarded $251 million to 12 projects that will support infrastructure development for carbon dioxide (CO2) transport and storage. One of those projects specifically targets CO2 sourced from ethanol production.

The University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental and Research Center was awarded nearly $38.15 million to support site characterization and permitting efforts for a CO2 storage hub in central North Dakota with the capacity to store approximately 200 million metric tons of CO2. CO2 for that hub is expected to be sourced from electric generation and ethanol production.

The UND project was one of nine projects selected to receive a share of $242 million under Phase III of the DOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative. Phase III projects focus on detailed site characterization, planning and permitting.

Information published by the DOE indicates the North Dakota CarbonSAFE Phase III award supports the Project Tundra Carbon Capture System, which is led by North Dakota-based Minnkota Power Cooperative with research support from the UND EERC. According to the DOE, the project will feature Flour’s amine-based Econamine FG Plus technology.

Summit Carbon Solutions, the developer of proposed carbon pipeline project that aims to source CO2 from more than 30 ethanol plants spanning five states for sequestration in North Dakota, announced a partnership with Minnkota in April 2022 to co-develop CO2 storage facilities near Center, North Dakota. That agreement provides Summit with access to Minnkota’s already permitted 100-million-ton capacity CO2 storage site near Center. It also creates the a framework to jointly develop additional CO2 resources nearby.

In addition to the Phase III CarbonSAFE awards, the DOE also awarded a combined $9 million to three projects to support detailed design studies for regional CO2 pipeline networks. The studies will develop innovative methods to efficiency and safely transport captured CO2 from key sources like power plants, ethanol facilities, and other industrial operations.

The DOE also announced it is re-opening its $2.25 billion Carbon Storage Validation and Testing funding opportunity announcement. The funding opportunity has been modified to accept applications under a broader scope, including storage complex feasibility in addition to the site characterization, permitting, and construction stages of project development. It also expands the definition of large-scale storage to allow for additional storage options. Full applications are due July 6.