Nebraska Ethanol Plants Now Providing CO2 for Tallgrass Pipeline

by Matt Olberding (Nebraska Public Media) Tallgrass Energy has started operation of its $1.5 billion pipeline to transport carbon dioxide. On Oct. 3, Mid America Agri Products/Wheatland announced the start of carbon capture at its ethanol plant in Madrid, a village in Perkins County about an hour southwest of North Platte.

“We are operational, and Mid America Agri Products/Wheatland (MAAPW) is the first customer to deliver CO2 to the pipeline with several other facilities being brought online this year,” Steven Davidson, Tallgrass’s vice president of government affairs, said in a statement last week.

A second company, Green Plains, said Tuesday that it also had started capturing carbon dioxide at its ethanol plant in York and is supplying “significant volumes” to the Tallgrass pipeline.

Tallgrass has 11 ethanol plants signed up to pump carbon dioxide into the converted natural gas pipeline, which runs nearly 400 miles from Beatrice to eastern Wyoming.

Green Plains said it expects to start carbon capture at its Central City and Wood River ethanol plants before the end of the year. READ MORE

Excerpt from Associated Press: Other projects prompted intense opposition, including one that has run up $1 billion in spending with no guarantee of success, but the Tallgrass Trailblazer Pipeline is being praised. The reason: community negotiations and financial support.

“I wish all energy companies would treat communities with a lot more respect like Tallgrass did,” said Jane Kleeb, whose group Bold Nebraska has fought other carbon capture and oil pipelines.

The federal government encourages carbon capture through lucrative tax credits to pipeline operators. The Biden administration wanted to encourage a practice that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the Trump administration has let the credits continue.

“If an ethanol plant captures the carbon, it lowers their carbon index and they become a low-carbon fuel, and there’s a premium for that,” said Tom Buis, CEO of the American Carbon Alliance, a trade group. “And they can also produce sustainable aviation fuel out of it. Sustainable aviation fuel is a huge, gigantic market just waiting for someone to step forward and take it.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees a rigorous process for underground carbon dioxide injection, involving permits for construction and injection and regulations to protect underground sources of drinking water, Carbon Capture Coalition Executive Director Jessie Stolark said. Typically, porous rock formations similar to a sponge will store or trap the carbon dioxide more than a mile underground, she said.

How did Tallgrass do it?

Tallgrass had one big advantage at the starting point — it converted an existing natural gas line. The natural gas was put on a different pipeline as Trailblazer was retrofitted. The company built branches off the 400-mile mainline to connect to ethanol plants.

The company worked with people to get its project done “instead of trying to push it down our throat,” said Lee Hogan, chairman of the Adams County commission in Nebraska, whose home is a half-mile from the pipeline.

It helped that Tallgrass worked with Bold Nebraska, a citizens group, to create a community investment fund that will make annual payments to organizations related to early childhood development, Medicaid-eligible senior care and food pantries.

Tallgrass will make an initial $500,000 contribution followed by annual payments based on 10 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide sent through the pipeline. The Nebraska Community Foundation, which will manage the fund, expects more than $7 million will be given out through 2035 across 31 counties in four states.

It’s a unique arrangement, and a possible template for future projects, said Nebraska Community Foundation leader Jeff Yost.

Tallgrass spokesman Steven Davidson said the investment fund is just one piece of the company’s agreement with Bold, which he said emphasizes being cooperative and transparent, such as when surveying land and valuing easements.

Lessons from Tallgrass

While lauding Tallgrass’ cooperative approach, Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh, who studies energy policy at Columbia University, said it may be hard to replicate the experience since few if any natural gas pipelines will be available for retrofitting, given increases in supply and demand for natural gas domestically and abroad. Tallgrass’ line crosses his family’s land in Nebraska.

Still, companies can do better to engage and negotiate with communities, and that includes spending money, he said.

Kyle Quackenbush, a Tallgrass vice president, said his advice to other pipeline companies is to listen.

“I think the biggest advice we would have for people is to take those concerns seriously,” he said, “and figure out what it takes to be able to help people get comfortable and understand that this infrastructure is a benefit for their community and not something that they need to be afraid of.” READ MORE