$318m for CO2 projects

The US Department of Energy have announced the first three large-scale carbon sequestration projects in the US, doubling the amount of volume CO₂ storage demonstrations worldwide.

Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction; Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration; and Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon sequestration will conduct large volume tests for the storage of one million or more tons of CO₂ in deep saline reservoirs.

The projects will perform tests before during and after injection to evaluate the permanent storage capability of geological sites such as the Alberta basin and the Entrada Sandstone formation between Colorado and Wyoming. The Alberta basin test will also investigate the effect of hydrogen sulphide on co-sequestration.

In one to two years, each site will undergo modelling, monitoring and infrastructure improvements before a large amount of CO₂ is injected. Local power plants are being used to capture the CO₂ and the US hopes these projects will allow it to continue to use coal as a major energy source.