U.S. doles out cash for two carbon storage projects

The U.S. Department of Energy has put up funding for two large-scale carbon sequestration projects, awarding $126.6 million for testing of the technology in California and Ohio.

The DOE said the cash would be used by the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership and the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, marking the department's fifth and sixth large-scale carbon storage projects.

"The formations to be tested during the third phase of the partnerships program are the most promising of the major geologic basins in the United States," said Jeffrey Kupfer, acting deputy secretary of energy.

"Collectively, these formations have the potential to store more than 100 hundred years of CO2 emissions from all major point sources in North America."

The DOE said that including the partnership's cost share, the two projects are estimated to cost over $183 million.

The new projects will demonstrate the entire CO2 injection process, according to the energy department, covering pre-injection characterization, injection process monitoring, and post-injection monitoring.

The DOE said the large-scale injections of one million tons or more would test the ability of different geologic settings to permanently store CO2.

Last October, the department announced the first three large volume carbon sequestration projects, the Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership, the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, and the Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration.

DOE announced the fourth award last December, the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium.