The projects from 13 universities and other organizations will receive the funding as part of DOE’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, which intends to help reduce CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
DOE Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr said: “Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will play a very important role as the world moves toward a lower-carbon economy.
“The funding announced today through the CarbonSAFE initiative will help to address technical barriers to commercial-scale carbon storage as worldwide demand for these types of clean energy solutions continues to rise.”
The selected projects will construct and operate integrated CCS complexes in the 2025 timeframe over a series of sequential phases of development including Integrated CCS pre-feasibility, storage complex feasibility, site characterization, permitting and construction.
DOE said that thirteen projects were selected under phase I and the remaining three under phase II.
The phase I projects, which will receive more than $15m in federal funding, will conduct pre-feasibility study for a commercial-scale geological storage site.
Additionally, the projects under the second phase will receive more than $29m. These projects will perform the initial characterization of a storage complex identified as having high potential in addition to establishing the complex’s feasibility for commercial storage.
