DOE Project Captures, Stores 1 Million Metric Tons of Carbon

The Department of Energy’s Illinois Basin-Decatur Project has captured and stored 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and injected it into a deep saline formation.

The project is part of the development phase of the DOE’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships initiative, which is helping develop and deploy carbon capture and storage technologies across the country.

Energy secretary Ernest Moniz called the milestone “an important step towards the widespread deployment of carbon capture technologies in real-world settings.”

The carbon dioxide is captured from the Archer Daniels Midland Company ethanol-production facility in Decatur, Illinois, and is compressed before traveling across a mile-long pipeline and injected approximately 7,000 feet below the surface into the Mount Simon Sandstone formation.

Since beginning in November 2011, the injection test performed better than expected, sustaining pressure increases well below regulatory limits. Over the course of 100 years, the injected CO2 is projected to remain hundreds of feet below a 300-foot thick shale formation that will act as a seal and inhibit upward migration of the CO2.

The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium, led by the Illinois State Geological Survey, is evaluating CCS options for the 60,000-square-mile Illinois Basin, which underlies most of Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky.

Twenty-two carbon capture and storage projects are under construction or in operation worldwide, up 50 percent since 2011, according to a November report by the Global CCS Institute.