US directs $450 million at CO2 storage

New York, 2 November: The US Department of Energy plans to provide $450 million over 10 years to develop carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration technologies.

Assistant DOE secretary Jeffrey Jarrett outlined the programme on 31 October, saying sequestration "holds the key to the continued environmentally responsible use of coal".

DOE spokesman John Grasser said the funds would go to seven existing carbon sequestration partnerships, organised by: the DOE's Battelle Columbus Laboratories; the University of Illinois; the California Energy Commission; Montana State University; New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; the Southern States Energy Board; and the University of North Dakota.

Those groups have identified locations that could store 600 billion tonnes of CO2, representing 200 years of emissions, the DOE estimates.

"This is to test whether the geological infrastructure exists to pump large amounts of CO2 underground," said Grasser. Some projects may use the CO2 for enhanced oil recovery and sequester it in the wells.

The effort is linked to the DOE's $1 billion programme with utilities to develop the FutureGen power plant, a coal gasification plant that would capture and sequester CO2 while generating electricity and producing hydrogen that could be used in fuel cell vehicles.

The sequestration programme is dependent on obtaining funds from Congress, Grasser noted.