Completing a series of awards through its Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership Program, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week awarded $66.9 million to the Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership
Led by Montana State University-Bozeman, the Partnership will conduct a large-volume test in the Nugget Sandstone formation to demonstrate the ability of a geologic formation to safely, permanently and economically store more than two million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). The project is estimated to cost $130.6 million, including the partnership’s cost share.
Big Sky plans to drill a CO2 injection well and then inject up to one million tons per year of CO2 into the Nugget Sandstone formation at a depth of approximately 11,000 feet. These eolian sandstone formations are present throughout the region and present the opportunity to store more than 100 years of CO2 emissions from point sources in the region, according to the DOE.
Today’s award to Big Sky is the seventh award in the third phase of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships program. Six other large-scale field projects are currently being developed throughout the United States by the other Regional Partnerships.
Following the cancellation of FutureGen, this initiative, launched by DOE in 2003, is the centerpiece of national efforts to develop the infrastructure and knowledge base needed to place carbon capture and storage technologies on the path to commercialization.
However, many continue to doubt the viability of the technology, and insist that it will be too little, too late to avert the most serious effects of climate change.
MIT researchers suggested in a recent report that partial carbon capture might be a more affordable and viable option.
And the Canadian media this week published notes prepared by that countries carbon capture task force, stating that carbon capture offered only limited opportunities to cut greenhouse gas emissions for dirty oil sands projects. Link to that story below.
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