The Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), one of the nation’s largest food producers, announced it is teaming with corporate and governmental partners on an $84 million carbon sequestration project in the Midwest.
ADM will collaborate with the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) and the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) to capture and store carbon dioxide from its ethanol plant in Decatur, Illinois.
Sequestration is a yet-untested process by which carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming) is captured and stored in the tiny spaces of porous rock deep below the Earth’s surface. A handful of other sequestering projects in the U.S. are in the early stages of development, but the process is extremely expensive.
While many view carbon sequestration as a possible solution to dirty coal-burning power plants, it could assist corn ethanol producers, like ADM, as well. Many environmentalists and researchers say the life cycle of ethanol from corn emits about the same amount of carbon dioxide as gasoline, making it an ineffective tool in combating climate change. But through carbon sequestering, they could lessen the impact of the fuel.
Dennis Riddle, ADM president of Corn Processing, said, "We see potential for carbon sequestration to improve the environmental footprint of biofuels by further reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
The ADM project is designed to confirm the ability of the Mount Simon Sandstone, a major regional saline-water-bearing rock formation in Illinois, to accept and store 1 million tons of carbon dioxide over a period of three years. The carbon dioxide will be provided by ADM from its Decatur, Illinois, ethanol plant, and the project will be located on ADM’s Decatur property.
"Carbon sequestration is a promising technology to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Our goal for this project is to further demonstrate its safety and effectiveness," said Robert Finley, director of the ISGS Energy and Earth Resources Center. "Deep saline rock formations, like the Mount Simon Sandstone, offer the greatest potential for sequestration of large volumes of carbon dioxide."
In this project, wells will be drilled into the Mount Simon Sandstone at an expected depth of more than 6,500 feet. Carbon dioxide from ADM’s ethanol plant will be injected into the Mount Simon Sandstone, where the compressed liquid-like carbon dioxide will be stored in the porous saline rock formation. MGSC will be responsible of monitoring the safety and effectiveness of the storage.
The $84.3 million project will be funded by $66.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy over a period of seven years, supplemented by cofunding from ADM and other corporate and state resources.
The project will begin in spring 2008 with the drilling of the injection well. Environmental monitoring will begin in October 2008 to collect a year of background information. The sequestration and injection of carbon dioxide is scheduled to begin in October 2009 and should conclude in 2012.
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