The funding is part of DOE’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, which seeks to help mitigate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
Projects selected as part of this initiative will address key research gaps in the path toward the deployment of CCS technologies, including the development of commercial-scale (50+ million metric tons CO2) geologic storage sites for CO2 from industrial sources. These sources, such as cement and iron and steel production, currently account for an estimated 21 percent of U.S. carbon emissions.
“CCS will play a very important role as the world moves toward a lower-carbon economy,” said Lynn Orr, DOE’s Under Secretary for Science and Energy. “The U.S. must continue a leadership role in the development and deployment of CO2 storage technologies as a key element of a diversified energy economy. The funding announced today through the CarbonSAFE initiative will help to address technical barriers to commercial-scale carbon storage as worldwide demand for these types of clean energy solutions continues to rise.”
The projects will build on the lessons learned from FE’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships’ (RCSP) large-scale field projects while considering the next set of technical challenges for carbon storage. These and other CCS efforts enable industries to continue operation while emitting fewer greenhouse gasses. This effort will also promote R&D to ensure that storage is safe, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable.
The projects aim to develop integrated CCS complexes that are constructed and permitted for operation in the 2025 timeframe over a series of sequential phases of development: Integrated CCS Pre-Feasibility, Storage Complex Feasibility, Site Characterization, Permitting and Construction. The selections announced today apply to the first two of those phases.