Carbon Sequestration

World’s largest CCS project gets financial shot in the arm

Summit Carbon Solutions is forging ahead with its planned carbon capture and storage project in the US state of North Dakota, which the project proponent claims to be the largest of its kind globally. US operator Continental Resources will invest $250 million into Summit’s North Dakota CCS scheme, which will initially handle more than 8 million tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide.

Feds Roll Out $12.1B in Infra Funding for Carbon Capture Tech, Pipelines

The White House is gearing up to spend $12.1 billion under the federal infrastructure bill to develop and deploy carbon capture technologies and build carbon dioxide transport pipelines. The Council on Environmental Quality seeks comments by March 18 on its proposal to deploy carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) projects, it said in a Feb. 16 Federal Register notice, which includes guidance to help US agencies regulate and permit them.

New federal guidelines could boost carbon capture in the US

Biden administration issued new guidelines for federal agencies on how to assess proposals to capture and sequester carbon dioxide pollution. The new guidance lays out steps that could encourage “widespread deployment” of a controversial form of climate tech, as well as the network of pipelines and other infrastructure that come along with it.

The bipartisan infrastructure law passed last fall included more than $12 billion for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) projects. The US will likely need such technologies to reach Biden’s climate goals, the new guidelines say. But the technologies, which draw CO2 out of smokestack emissions or the ambient air, are a divisive strategy for slowing climate change. Proponents say CCUS is needed to clean up hard-to-decarbonize industries like cement and steel.

TALOS ENERGY ANNOUNCES LEASE AGREEMENT FOR MAJOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION HUB IN MISSISSIPPI RIVER INDUSTRIAL CORRIDOR

Talos Energy Inc. today announced that it had reached an agreement with a large Louisiana landowner to lease approximately 26,000 acres along the Mississippi River industrial corridor for future carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”) projects. Talos also announced today, in a separate press release, its entry into a memorandum of understanding with EnLink Midstream, LLC (“EnLink”) to provide integrated CO2 transportation solutions in the region. These announcements mark the first major CCS project in the Baton Rouge / New Orleans area, known as the “River Bend CCS” project, and the first with an integrated midstream solution dedicated to permanent sequestration activities. Talos will be the project manager and operator of the injection, storage and monitoring and will be joined by its partner, Storegga Limited.

Can Carbon Capture Save the Planet?

Text: Most carbon capture facilities remove CO2 emissions from industrial operations. Less common but garnering interest are “direct air capture” technologies, which extract CO2 from the atmosphere. CO2 from both is normally injected into deep geological formations for permanent storage, but it can also be combined with hydrogen to create synthetic fuels, or used for other products and purposes. CO2 from industrial operations is often injected into oil and gas wells to force more “product” out.

Oceans are Better at Storing Carbon than Trees

In new research published today, we investigate the long-term rate of permanent carbon removal by seashells of plankton in the ocean near New Zealand. We show that seashells have drawn down about the same amount of carbon as regional emissions of carbon dioxide, and this process was even higher during ancient periods of climate warming.

Jobs and Economic Impact of Carbon Capture Deployment

The Mid-continent region can create an annual average of up to 76,430 project jobs over a 15-year period and 39,672 ongoing operations jobs through the deployment of carbon capture at 444 industrial and power facilities. The retrofit of equipment at these facilities would capture 642 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. Along with the development of CO2 transport infrastructure, this would generate up to $232.2 billion in private investment.

An Atlas of Carbon and Hydrogen Hubs

The industrial sector, which is a major component of both the United States economy and emissions profile, faces challenges to decarbonization due to reliance on on-site fuel use and chemical processes for product manufacturing. Increased renewable electricity and an electrified transportation sector can help reduce emissions from industrial use of grid electricity and product distribution, but there remains a large fleet of existing equipment used for on-site generation of energy, heat, and mechanical production. In some cases, the production of industrial commodities like cement and ethanol involves the inherent release of greenhouse gases as part of a basic chemical process.

Transport Infrastructure for Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon capture enables power and industrial sectors to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions while protecting and creating highwage employment. For key carbon-intensive industries such as steel and cement, significant CO 2 emissions result from the mechanical or chemical nature of the production process itself, regardless of the source of process energy. Industrial CO 2 emissions account for 33% of US stationary emissions.3 Carbon capture is therefore an essential emissions reduction tool for industries that are otherwise difficult to decarbonize even after switching to low-carbon electricity. IEA modeling estimates that more than 28 billion tons of CO 2 must be captured globally from industrial processes by 2060 in order to meet international decarbonization goals and temperature targets.

State and Federal Policy Drivers for Growing America’s Carbon Capture and CO2-EOR Industry

CO2-EOR enhances our nation’s energy and economic security by lessening our dependence on foreign oil, often imported from unstable and hostile areas, and reducing our trade deficit by keeping dollars currently spent on oil imports at work in the U.S. economy. Production of coal, oil and natural gas plays a vital role in the economies of most states participating in this Work Group. These states and the nation benefit from all sectors involved in CO2-EOR.

Electricity Market Design and Carbon Capture Technology: The Opportunities and the Challenges

The United States is a global leader in both carbon capture and CO2- enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which together provide numerous economic, job and emissions benefits. CO2-EOR currently provides four percent of U.S. domestic oil production and the federal and state incentives recommended by this Work Group to capture carbon from manmade sources and build out CO2 pipeline infrastructure could triple U.S. CO2-EOR production, greatly expanding the benefits. In this paper, the CO2-EOR State Deployment Work Group explores the electricity market challenges and opportunities facing carbon capture at power plants, the pertinent underlying market conditions, and potential policy responses to improve electricity markets to drive more investments in carbon capture in the electricity sector.

Carbon Capture Coalition Releases Federal Policy Blueprint

In a largely unheralded example of American innovation, U.S. industry has led the world over nearly a half century in successfully demonstrating large-scale carbon capture across a range of industries, including natural gas processing, fertilizer production, gasification, ethanol fermentation, refinery hydrogen production and coal-fired power generation. Carbon capture capacity has grown to nearly 25 million metric tons across U.S. industries annually, equivalent to nearly 5.3 million cars.

U.S. Department of Energy Awards $5.7 Million for GE-Led Carbon Capture Technology Integration Project

GE Gas Power (NYSE: GE) today announced that the company’s front-end engineering design (FEED) study “Retrofittable Advanced Combined Cycle Integration for Flexible Decarbonized Generation” will receive $5,771,670 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management following successful completion of the award negotiation phase. This funding is focused on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) for power generation applications with a goal of commercial deployment by 2030.

Capturing Carbon is the Future

The enemy isn’t fossil fuels. It’s not gas. It’s not even coal. The enemy is carbon dioxide. So carbon-capture technologies are the future. We need to get the CO2 out of our industrial and energy processes, and we need to move quickly.

If we don’t, a lot of these facilities are going to be forced to shut down. Keeping these operations working, and keeping workers employed, while reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, is the win-win story we need.

Carbon-capture works, and its technologies are improving all the time. Indeed, if all proposed carbon-capture projects in Canada go ahead, they could capture 115 million tonnes of emissions — 60% of Canada’s 2030 target.

Carbon Capture and Storage Risk Management

Risk management is one of the few key policy issues to facilitate carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Class VI storage facilities that has not been the beneficiary of substantial policy revision in the past few years. Stakeholders are interested in the development of policy to effectively manage the safety, performance, and liability risks associated with containment of captured and stored CO₂.

In 2019 the National Petroleum Council (NPC) issued at the Secretary of Energy’s request a report entitled “Meeting the Dual Challenge: A Roadmap to At-Scale Deployment of Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage in the United States,” containing a broad range of recommendations. Many view this as the premiere current report on CCS policy issues in the U.S. One recommendation was to “convene an industry and stakeholder forum to develop a risk-based standard to address long-term liability.” No such forum has been convened, but we are aware of interest.

What to Make of the Carbon Capture Pipeline Boom

The global pipeline of CCUS facilities more than doubled in 2021 with more than 100 new projects announced since 2020, IEA data shows. The surge can be attributed to net-zero ambitions, interest in low-carbon hydrogen, and an improved investment environment.

“The unprecedented momentum in 2021 provides cause for optimism that CCUS may finally be shrugging off an underwhelming track record to emerge as an important contributor to addressing the climate challenge,” Samantha McCulloch, head of the IEA’s CCUS unit, said. “This is both welcome and necessary. If net zero is to remain within reach, CCUS cannot spend another decade sitting on the sidelines of climate mitigation efforts.”

Carbon Capture Services Could Break Even in Next 10 years – Equinor

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) services for large industrial emitters could break even in the next 10 years if emitting a tonne of carbon costs around 100 euros per tonne, Equinor’s (EQNR.OL) CCS chief said at  the Reuters Next conference.

Why Big Oil And Environmentalists Need To Support This Climate Tech

Many have bashed CCS technologies for being unproven or nascent, despite their long-standing use in the oil and gas industry as well as other core industries. In fact, CCS has been in commercial use for 50 years, now capturing over 35 million tonnes of CO2 every year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has modeled hundreds of potential scenarios to achieve the climate goals set out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, aiming for net-zero carbon emissions by the mid-century, and the one that continually came out on top was CCS.

Company Wants to Build a Carbon Sequestration Pipeline in 30 Iowa Counties

Summit plans to capture the carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol and other industrial agricultural plants before they’re released into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. The company will compress the emissions into a liquid so it can be transported to North Dakota, where it will be injected in underground rock formations for permanent storage.

Ohio’s Carbon Capture Improvement Act Passes Senate

Senators Rob Portman and Michael Bennet back in May introduced the bill to help finance carbon capture projects, reduce emissions and boost innovation. Through the act, the duo also hopes to make it easier for power plants and industrial facilities to install carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) equipment, as well as direct air capture (DAC) technology. It is thought the above can be achieved through the use of private activity bonds.

Carbon Capture Tech Becoming Cost-Effective as Emissions Price Soars

The cost to release carbon has never been higher in Europe and it’s poised to keep increasing, creating a tipping point where preventing the emissions becomes a viable economic alternative. Capture technology already is used in North America and Australia, and large projects are being developed in the U.K., Netherlands and Norway. Carbon prices could reach 100 euros as soon as 2025, according to Bank of America Corp. At that level, it’s more economical long-term for some sectors using natural gas to capture their emissions rather than paying for permits to release them

Fossil Fuel Companies Are Quietly Scoring Big Money for Their Preferred Climate Solution: Carbon Capture and Storage

Just a single bill—the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that passed the Senate last week and is now headed to the House of Representatives—includes more than $12 billion in direct support for carbon capture, and could unlock billions more through other programs, according to the recent drafts.

Energy Solutions via Carbon Capture

Power production enabled with CCS allows us to do away with the overbuild of the solar, wind, and batteries’ complex. Attempting to overcome intermittency with a brute-force, overbuild approach is truly staggering.

Aemetis CCS Drilling Study by Baker Hughes Confirms Feasibility of Sequestering Two Million MT per Year of CO2 at California Ethanol Plant Sites

The Baker Hughes study estimated that 1.0 million MT per year of CO2 can be sequestered in the saline formations located deep underground at or near the Aemetis Keyes ethanol plant site. The study noted that up to 1.4 million MT per year of CO2 should be injectable at or near the Aemetis Riverbank site due to the favorable permeability of the saline formation and other factors. Each MT of CO2 is planned to generate approximately $200 per MT from the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard and $50 per MT of IRS 45Q tax credit. Legislation is pending in Congress to increase the federal tax credit to $80 per MT of CO2 and to provide billions of dollars of grants and loans to finance CCS projects in the U.S.

DOE Awards $24M for Direct-Air Carbon Capture R&D Projects

Nine projects researching new methods for direct-air carbon capture and storage will receive $24 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. DOE announced the funding for Direct Air Capture (DAC) experimentation and research efforts. Carbon reduction efforts may not be enough to help reach the federal goals of net-zero carbon by 2050.

Consortium Agrees to Back North Sea Greensand Carbon Storage Pilot Project

INEOS Energy, Wintershall Dea, as part of a consortium, signed an agreement to support the next phase of the Greensand pilot project to demonstrate the safe and permanent storage of CO2 in the Danish North Sea.

As Federal Support Emerges, PA Wants to be a Carbon Capture Hub

Pennsylvania is ideally suited to help the nation fight global warming by becoming a leader in the effort to capture and store emissions of carbon dioxide, state officials say. Their quest has just received a jolt of legitimacy from President Joe Biden’s massive climate plan, which calls on a greater nationwide effort to capture, store and re-use carbon dioxide.

The Infrastructure Deal Could Create Pipelines for Captured CO2

A new generation of pipelines could be born out of the bipartisan infrastructure deal making its way through Congress. But instead of hauling oil and gas, the pipelines would carry planet-heating carbon dioxide. The full text of the bill, which senators released on August 1st, recasts the suite of emerging carbon capture and removal technologies as essentially a new type of critical infrastructure. “Carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure share similar barriers to deployment previously faced by other types of critical national infrastructure, such as high capital costs and chicken-and-egg challenges, that require Federal and State support, in combination with private investment, to be overcome,” the bill reads.

Valero, BlackRock and Navigator Join Forces to Build 1,200-Mile CCS Pipeline Across Midwest

Valero Energy Corp. and a unit of BlackRock Inc. are teaming up with Navigator Energy Services to develop an industrial-scale pipeline to gather, transport and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from sites in five Midwest states. The newbuild system, which initially would run more than 1,200 miles across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Climate Activists Pan Carbon Capture Plans

A campaign, coordinated by Center for International Environmental Law, counters that “at best” CCS prevents some emissions from reaching the atmosphere – provided the captured gases are not later released.At worst, the coalition claims, CCS masks emissions, increases pipeline infrastructure, and prolongs the fossil fuel era.

Carbon Capture is Expected to Play a Pivotal Role in the Race to Net Zero Emissions

Proponents of carbon capture technologies believe they can play an important and diverse role in meeting global energy and climate goals. The topic is divisive, however, with climate researchers, campaigners and environmental advocacy groups arguing that carbon capture technology is not a solution.

BayoTech, CarbonFree join Forces on Zero-Carbon Hydrogen Production with Carbon Capture

BayoTech and CarbonFree Chemicals are to develop a pilot hydrogen production site with carbon capture technologies as part of a new partnership.Dubbed SkyCycle™ the carbon capture technology is an on-site solution that mineralizes carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from the generator and creates products for sale or safe storage.

Shell Unveils Carbon Capture Project in Canada’s Alberta Province

Shell said it plans to build a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project near Edmonton, Alberta, joining a number of other companies proposing clean energy initiatives in Canada’s main oil-producing province.

Canada Invests $25m in Carbon Capture Technology Company

Global governments are increasingly realising the role that carbon capture technology can play in meeting sustainability goals, evidenced by the Canadian government’s recent investment of CDN$25 million (US$20 million) in Vancouver-based company Svante. The investment was made through the Strategic Innovation Fund’s Net Zero Accelerator, a state initiative launched in 2020 whose aim is to accelerate the use of clean technologies to help decarbonise the Canadian economy.

Exxon and Shell join Scottish Carbon Capture Project ACORN

Large-scale CCS initiative Acorn now involves most of the big oil and gas groups in the North Sea. The Acorn project aims to join up a cluster of industrial hubs close to the North Sea that account for about 80% of all Scotland’s industrial carbon emissions. Exxon said the Acorn Project :has the potential to provide more than half of the 10M tons per years of CO2 targeted by the UK government

UK East Coast Cluster Stands Ready to Remove 50% of the UK’s Industrial Cluster CO2 Emissions

The bid is on behalf of the East Coast Cluster, a collaboration between leading companies from across Teesside and the Humber which aims to advance the government’s world-leading ambition to establish the first ‘net zero’ carbon industrial cluster in the UK by 2040. These two regions account for nearly 50% of all UK industrial cluster emissions.

European Union Commits to Reducing Emissions of Greenhouse Gases 55% by 2030

The most radical, and possibly contentious, proposal would impose tariffs on certain imports from countries with less stringent climate-protection rules. The proposals also include eliminating the sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars in just 14 years, and raising the price of using fossil fuels. The trade disputes are likely to center on the so-called carbon border-adjustment tax, which the European Union sees as a way to protect its own industries from unfair competition from countries with less stringent and less costly environmental standards; others call the proposed tax protectionist. The plan, at least so far, would include imports on items like steel, cement, fertilizer and aluminum and could impact goods from such countries as China, Russia and the United States.

Ineos and Petroineos Joins Acorn CCS Project in Scotland

British chemical firm Ineos and Petroineos have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to join the Acorn CCS Project, Scotland’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) system. The investment at the Grangemouth site will allow the annual capture and storage of approximately one million tonnes of CO2 by 2027, with the scope for significant additional volumes.

Iowa Governor Reynolds Creates Carbon Sequestration Task Force

Iowa is a recognized leader in renewable fuel and food production, and this is another opportunity to lead and be innovative, invest in Iowa agriculture and facilitate new sources of revenue for our agriculture and energy sectors.

Optimism Grows in Iowa Around Future of Carbon Sequestration

Carbon capture pipelines can help Iowa ethanol plants “maintain a competitive advantage,” Durham said, as many states and some countries implement low-carbon fuel standards that gives better pricing to lower-carbon fuels.

Gulf Coast Ready to Develop Carbon Storage Hub

The paper describes how the existing CO2 infrastructure could be leveraged and expanded to boost carbon storage outside of enhanced oil recovery — with the researchers highlighting the subsurface geology offshore of the Gulf Coast as a suitable spot for permanently storing CO2.

How To Scale Up Carbon Capture And Storage

Renewables alone can’t resolve the net zero emissions challenge. We have to think in terms of carbon avoidance and carbon removal. Policy support is a pre-requisite to support the economics, including a minimum carbon price of US$90/tonne for most industrial applications at scale. ‘Coopetition’ is the way forward, joining forces with the competition to identify concentrated clusters of carbon emissions, shared transport infrastructure and basin-wide storage.

ExxonMobil, Shell get $2.4 Billion in Subsidies for Carbon Storage Project

The Dutch government has granted a consortium that includes oil majors ExxonMobil and Shell around $2.4 billion in subsidies for what will be one of the largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the world. The project aims to capture CO2 emitted by factories and refineries in the Port of Rotterdam area and store it in empty Dutch gas fields in the North Sea. It is worth noting that the Dutch Climate Agreement, agreed to some two years ago, already includes CCS and the government believes that its 2030 target can’t be reached without it.

Carbon Capture Bills Gathering Steam in Congress

Several bills creating benefits and financing for carbon capture have been introduced in Congress and are seeing movement through bipartisan support. Carbon capture, also known as carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS), is the process of gathering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, typically from sources such as coal-fired power plants. Once captured, the greenhouse gas is usually stored or reused so it does not enter the atmosphere, where it is harmful to the environment.

The Importance of Scaling Carbon Capture to Market

To go fast enough and big enough on climate change, we need to unleash innovations in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and put the power of markets behind scaling them up. The U.S. commitment to cut emissions 50-52 percent by 2030 and get to net-zero economy-wide by 2050, are big, transformative goals. But as special climate envoy John Kerry said, “Even if we get to net-zero by 2050, we still have to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere … That means we need the innovative technologies to do that.”

NETL Wellborne Integrity and Mitigation

The Carbon Storage Program’s Wellbore Integrity and Mitigation Technology Component comprises efforts to improve wellbore construction materials to ensure safe and reliable injection operations and long-term containment of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the storage complex. In addition, the Wellbore Integrity and Mitigation Technology Component also addresses the need to prevent and correct any release of CO2 from its intended geologic storage complex.

NETL Storage Complex Efficiency and Security

Storage Complex Efficiency and Security provides improved tools to design effective injection operations, optimize injection rates, manage pressure, make efficient use of reservoir storage space, and ensure the sealing capability of caprocks, both onshore and offshore. Development of these tools relies upon an understanding of carbon dioxide (CO2) plume and brine pressure front movement and stabilization, along with knowledge of the geomechanical and geochemical impacts of CO2 injection on storage complex in diverse geologic settings. The movement of CO2 in the reservoir, and accompanying changes in pressure are affected by many factors, such as the magnitude and distribution of various hydrologic properties of the reservoir rock, reservoir size, structural features such as baffles and fractures, sedimentary variations, the in-situ stress state, and diverse geochemical reactions.

NETL Monitoring, Verification, Accounting and Assessment

Monitoring, Verification, Accounting (MVA), and Assessment research is focused on three key technologies: subsurface monitoring, atmospheric and near-surface monitoring, and intelligent monitoring. The combination of atmospheric, near-surface, and subsurface monitoring technologies provides a multilevel approach to confirm permanent storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). Intelligent Monitoring Systems (IMSs) that provide real-time, actionable information for operational control of storage projects will reduce the costs associated with carbon storage.

NETL Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP) Initiative

To support the development of regional infrastructure for carbon capture and storage (CCS), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created a network of seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs).

The RCSP Initiative began in 2003 with characterization of each region’s potential to store carbon dioxide (CO2) in different geologic formations. Characterization activities in the Carbon Storage Program originally started as Phase I of the RCSP Initiative (the “Characterization Phase”) and included cataloging regional CO2 sources, characterizing CCS prospects, and prioritizing opportunities for future CO2 injection field projects. In 2005, validation of the most promising regional storage opportunities was initiated through a series of small-scale field laboratory projects (Validation Phase). The Validation Phase led to the successful completion of 19 small-scale field projects in a variety of storage complexes (8 in oil and gas fields, 5 in un-mineable coal seams, 5 in saline formations, 1 in basalt), providing information on reservoir and seal properties of regionally significant formations, testing, and initial validation of modeling and monitoring technologies. In 2008, the RCSP focus turned to large-scale field laboratories in saline formations and oil and gas fields with a target of injecting at least 1 million metric tons (MMT) per project in the Development Phase of the RCSP Initiative. Numerous applied research technologies have been integrated into these projects and the results have been essential in further technology development of CCS.

NETL Characterization and Field Projects

Characterization field laboratory projects focus on storage complex that can support the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in both onshore and offshore settings. A key gap in the critical path toward CCS deployment is the identification and detailed characterization of geologic storage sites for the storage of 50+ million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources. The Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) Initiative has been deployed to focus on development of geologic storage sites for the storage of 50+ MMT of CO2 from industrial sources.

NETL Fit for Purpose Projects

Fit-for-Purpose projects are focused on developing specific subsurface engineering approaches that address research needs critical for widespread deployment. Data from Fit-for-Purpose field projects will validate National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) tools for reservoir modeling and assessing site-specific risks of leakage and induced seismicity at the 50+ million metric tons (MMT) scale. The research and development (R&D) performed in these projects will have crosscutting benefits to integrated subsurface science, including sharing technology testing data and information, project field sites to test technologies developed, best practices, and modeling and simulation capabilities as part of a network of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) field test sites for various applications (geothermal, nuclear waste isolation, shale gas, and unconventional oil).