DOE awards $45M for carbon capture and storage projects

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $45 million to advance point-source carbon capture and storage technologies.

The DOE funding will go to 12 projects that will seek to develop technologies that can capture at least 95 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from natural gas power and industrial facilities that produce commodities like cement and steel.

“In order to dramatically reduce carbon pollution in our fight against climate change, we must deploy all of the tools at our disposal, including the innovative technologies that capture CO2 emissions before they reach the atmosphere,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “What’s truly exciting about these projects is that not only do they put us on a path to decarbonize existing infrastructure, but they also pave the way for good-paying, union jobs—in the communities that have been impacted the most from our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Point-source carbon capture seeks to stop carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere by filtering out CO2 and other harmful gases from a power plant or industrial facility.

The 12 projects were selected by the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM). They each fit under three areas of interest: carbon capture research and development; engineering-scale testing of carbon capture technologies; and engineering design studies for carbon capture systems. The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the projects.

The funding went to the following 12 organizations: Sustainable Energy Solutions, Orem, Utah; University of Kentucky Research Foundation; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Wood Environmental & Infrastructure Solutions, Blue Bell, Pa.; Calpine Texas CCUS Holdings in Houston; General Electric Company, GE Research in Niskayuna, N.Y.; SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif.; CORMETECH, Inc., Charlotte; TDA Research in Wheat Ridge, Colorado; University of Kentucky Research Foundation; ION Clean Energy in Boulder; and GE Gas Power in Schenectady, N.Y.

“These projects demonstrate Colorado’s leadership in advancing innovative solutions to climate change while sustaining high quality jobs,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) said. “Climate change is an urgent crisis that demands an all-of-the-above approach. Investing in carbon capture will advance technological solutions, bring costs down, and cut emissions in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change.”