Carbon capture moves forward at a glacial pace

According to the release, these three demonstration projects will double the number of large volume carbon storage projects world wide.



http://www.carboncapturejournal.com/displaynews.php?NewsID=82&

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DOE awards first three large-scale sequestration projects
Government, Oct 24 2007 (Carbon Capture Journal)


- U.S Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the first three large-scale carbon sequestration projects in the United States.

The three projects - Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership, Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership and Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration will conduct large volume tests for the storage of one million or more tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep saline reservoirs.


DOE plans to invest $197 million over ten years subject to annual appropriations from Congress for the projects, which are the first of several sequestration demonstration projects planned through DOE's Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships.


The newly awarded projects kick off the third phase of the program. During the first phase, seven partnerships - consisting of organizations from government, industry and academia, and extending across the United States and into Canada - characterised the potential for CO2 storage in deep oil-, gas-,coal-, and saline-bearing formations.


When Phase I ended in 2005, the partnerships had identified more than 3,000 billion metric tons of potential storage capacity in promising sinks. This has the potential to represent more than 1,000 years of storage capacity from point sources in North America.


In the program's second phase, the partnerships implemented a portfolio of small-scale geologic and terrestrial sequestration projects. The purpose of these tests was to validate that different geologic formations have the injectivity, containment, and storage effectiveness needed for long-term sequestration.


The formations to be tested during this third phase of the regional partnerships program are recognised as the most promising of the geologic basins in the United States. Collectively, these formations have the potential to store more than one hundred years of CO2 emissions from all major point sources in North America.


Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, will conduct geologic CO2 storage projects in the Alberta and Williston Basins.


The Williston Basin project in North Dakota will couple enhanced oil recovery and CO2 storage in a deep carbonate formation that is also a major saline formation.


The CO2 for this project will come from a post-combustion capture facility located at a coal-fired power plant in the region.


A second test will be conducted in northwestern Alberta, Canada, and will demonstrate the co-sequestration of CO2 and hydrogen sulfide from a large gas-processing plant into a deep saline formation. This will provide data about how hydrogen sulfide affects the sequestration process.


Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, led by Southern States Energy Board, will demonstrate CO2 storage in the lower Tuscaloosa Formation Massive Sand Unit.


This geologic formation stretches from Texas to Florida and has the potential to store more than 200 years of CO2 emissions from major point sources in the region.


The partnership will inject CO2 at two locations to assess different CO2 streams and how the heterogeneity of the formation affects the injection and containment. Injection of several million tons of CO2 from a natural deposit is expected to begin in late 2008.


The project will then conduct a second injection into the formation using CO2 captured from a coal-fired power plant in the region.


Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration, coordinated by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, will inject several million tons of CO2 into the Jurassic-age Entrada Sandstone Formation in the southwestern United States.


The Entrada formation stretches from Colorado to Wyoming and is a significant storage reservoir in the region. The partnership will inject CO2 into the formation after extensive baseline characterisation and simulation modeling.


The project will test the limits of injection and demonstrate the integrity of the cap rock to trap the gas. Information gained from the project will be used to evaluate locations throughout the region where future power plants are being considered.


Over the first 12 to 24 months of these projects, researchers and industry partners will characterise the injection sites and then complete the modeling, monitoring, and infrastructure improvements needed before CO2 can be injected.


These efforts will establish a baseline for future monitoring after CO2 injection begins. Each project will then inject a large volume ofCO2 into a regionally significant storage formation.


After injection, researchers will monitor and model the CO2 to determine the effectiveness of the storage reservoir. These three projects will double the number of large-volume carbon storage demonstrations in operation worldwide.

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To put this carbon storage in perspective, the world release of CO2 is measured in BILLIONS of tons per year. The wildfires in California alone released 8 million tons of CO2 in only one week.

Do the Bushies know anyone who specializes in drilling holes in the ground? I wonder who got the contracts.