United States – The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $20 million in financing for four initiatives aimed at accelerating regional carbon capture, utilization, and storage implementation (CCUS).

The initiatives, which represent all four corners of the country, are known as the DOE’s Regional Initiatives to Accelerate CCUS Implementation—an program aiming to identify and address regional storage and transportation difficulties confronting commercial CCUS deployment. Extending the use of CCUS will cut CO2 emissions from industrial sources and is a critical component of meeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s objective of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Regional Initiatives are university-led collaborations with academics, non-governmental groups, business leaders, and municipal and state governments. By tackling critical technological difficulties, allowing data gathering, sharing, and analysis, evaluating regional storage and transportation infrastructure, and fostering regional knowledge transfer, the efforts identify and encourage carbon storage and transportation projects.

Each of the Regional Initiative lead organizations received roughly $5,000,000 in government funds from the DOE.

  • Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, OH) is leading the Regional Initiative to Accelerate CCUS Deployment in the Midwestern and Northeastern USA project in 20 Midwestern and Northwestern states to review regional infrastructure and technical challenges to deploying CCUS in three sedimentary basins and the Arches province.
  • New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, NM) is leading the Carbon Utilization and Storage Partnership of the Western United States project in 15 Western states to focus on compiling geologic datasets in the region for storage resource analyses and identifying data gaps.
  • Southern States Energy Board (Peachtree Corners, GA) is leading the Southeast Regional Carbon Utilization and Storage Partnership project in 15 Southeast states to identify at least 50 potential regional sites to evaluate storage resource potential and infrastructure needs.
  • University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center (Grand Forks, ND) is leading the Plains CO2 Reduction project in 13 Northwest states and four Canadian provinces to identify and address onshore regional storage and transport challenges facing the commercial deployment of CCUS in an expanded region.

The Regional Initiatives carry on the work of predecessor programs financed by the DOE’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative, assisting in the validation of geologic storage technologies and the commercialization of carbon capture and storage.