DOE Awards $20M to Help States Deploy Carbon Capture and Storage

The DOE has announced $20 million in funding to four projects working to accelerate the regional deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). The projects, representing all four corners of the country, are referred to as DOE’s Regional Initiatives to Accelerate CCUS Deployment—an initiative designed to identify and address regional storage and transportation challenges facing the commercial deployment of CCUS.

The Regional Initiatives are university-led partnerships with academia, non-governmental organizations, industry leaders, and local and state governments. The initiatives identify and promote carbon storage and transport projects by addressing key technical challenges; facilitating data collection, sharing, and analysis; evaluating regional storage and transport infrastructure; and promoting regional technology transfer.

Receiving approximately $5M in DOE federal funding, the following are Regional Initiative lead organizations from DOE EPSCoR jurisdictions:

• NEW MEXICO Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, NM) is leading the Carbon Utilization and Storage Partnership of the Western United States project in 15 Western states to focus on compiling geologic datasets in the region for storage resource analyses and identifying data gaps.
• University of NORTH DAKOTA Energy and Environmental Research Center (Grand Forks, ND) is leading the Plains CO2 Reduction project in 13 Northwest states and four Canadian provinces to identify and address onshore regional storage and transport challenges facing the commercial deployment of CCUS in an expanded region.