Sequestration solutions

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded more than $126.6m to the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB) and the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) to fund two large-scale carbon sequestration projects.

The industry partners will conduct large volume tests in California and Ohio to demonstrate the ability of a geologic formation to safely, permanently, and economically store more than one million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

'Collectively, these formations have the potential to store more than 100 hundred years of CO₂ emissions from all major sources in North America,' said acting US deputy secretary of energy Jeffrey Kupfer.

The new projects will demonstrate the entire CO₂ injection process - pre-injection characterisation, injection process monitoring, and post-injection monitoring - for large scale injections of one million tons or more to test the ability of different geologic settings to permanently store CO₂.

The $126.6m DOE cash will be invested in the two projects over the next 10 years, while industry partners will cough up an additional $56.6m.