The CO2 will be injected at a depth of 7,000 ft at a site owned by ADM in Decatur, Illinois. ADM provides the carbon dioxide as a byproduct of its production of fuel ethanol from Illinois corn.
MGSC is one of seven regional projects funded by the US Department of Energy to test the safety and effectiveness of carbon capture and storage as a measure to reduce emission of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
Injection and monitoring
The IBDP began operational injection on November 17, 2011. In early June 2013, a major milestone was reached as the injected volume reached the 500,000 metric ton mark. Injection will continue through late 2014 at which time the injection operation will shut down when 1 million metric tons have been injected. Environmental monitoring will continue for at least three more years, but likely longer.
To date, the injection has proceeded as planned with the receiving reservoir, the Mount Simon Sandstone, readily taking the injected volume of 1,000 metric tons per day. Capacity, injectivity, and containment have all met pre-injection expectations and researchers continue to focus on validating the project’s environmental framework, understanding the carbon dioxide distribution in the subsurface, and improvements in operations and monitoring well equipment.
Pressure readings from an observation well 1,000 feet from the injection well suggest that the injected CO2 has not reached the middle of the 1,500-foot-thick Mt. Simon reservoir. Models that project the movement of the CO2 plume over 100 years suggest that the CO2 will remain below this level. Data from a 3D vertical seismic profile acquired in early April 2013 are expected to further define the position of the plume.
Further development
The IBDP research effort, part of the U.S. Department of Energy – National Technology Laboratory’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership program, is now complimented by the development of additional injection capacity of 2,000 metric tons per day, under development as part of the Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage project. Both sites are at the facilities of the Archer Daniels Midland Company in Decatur.
The combined projects will allow evaluation of subsurface injected carbon dioxide from two high-volume injection wells that together will advance understanding of the volumes to be dealt with at a scale much more resembling storage from a commercial pulverized coal power plant.
The Illinois Basin – Decatur Project has attracted international attention as one of the few onshore projects in the world to successfully reach the demonstration stage, and numerous international guests have visited the site. Countries represented include Norway, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain, Japan, Brazil, and others. Worldwide interest in the project continues and lessons learned to date will be detailed in an invited seminar for European researchers to be held in Oslo, Norway in October 2013.