DOE to invest $251M into 12 carbon management projects
Through the Department of Energy (DOE), the Biden administration announced plans this week to invest $251 million into 12 projects selected from seven states, all dedicated to improving CO2 transport and storage in support of carbon management nationwide.
This, the department said, should significantly and responsibly reduce CO2 emissions from power generation and industrial operations. These emissions are a lead source of global warming, which has contributed to the increased danger of droughts, severe fires, rising sea levels and more in recent years. All projects herein will enable either the capture, transport and conversion or storage of millions of tons of CO2 emissions annually, which the DOE noted would help mitigate climate change impacts while also providing new economic opportunities and jobs.
“Less pollution, cleaner air and more jobs are the upshots of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “Thanks to historic clean energy investments, DOE is building out the infrastructure needed to slash harmful carbon pollution from industry and the power sector, revitalize local economies, and unlock enormous public health benefits.”
The selected projects can be further divided into two categories: carbon storage validation/testing project selections and CO2 transport engineering/design project selections.
Most were in the former, with $242 million going to the development of nine projects focused on large-scale, commercial carbon storage projects able to securely store 50 or more million metric tons of CO2, while providing jobs, working within communities and maintaining environmental justice. These included efforts from organizations like the Bluebonnet Sequestration Hub, LLC of Texas, on down to storage hub efforts by the University of Wyoming.
The remaining $9 million went to three projects of CO2 transport engineering, focused on creating new methods of efficient and safe transport of captured CO2 from power plants and other key sources to locations that can utilize the CO2 to manufacture long-lived products or permanently store it. Each project, including studies from Carbon Solutions LLC of Michigan, Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC of Texas and Southern States Energy Board of Georgia, will focus on carbon transport costs, transport network configurations and technical/commercial options related to commercial scale carbon capture, conversion and storage.
On top of all this, the DOE announced the reopening of a $2.25 billion Carbon Storage Validation and Testing funding opportunity, now tailored to a broader range of applications, including additional storage options. Applications for this will be due by July 6, 2023.
