(558bq) Integrated Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage for the Midcontinent United States

The Integrated Midcontinent Stacked Carbon Storage Hub (IMSCS-HUB) is studying the development of an integrated commercial-scale CO₂ storage hub in Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. The IMSCS-HUB is part of the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) established by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The confluence of the region’s agricultural (corn) output, ethanol production, and oil industry make it an ideal candidate for early implementation of a stacked-CO₂-storage hub. The IMSCS-HUB is currently in its second phase (feasibility study). The IMSCS-HUB builds on lessons learned from the DOE-NETL Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs). The team is led by Battelle Memorial Institute and includes: Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), the Kansas Geologic Survey (KGS), the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota, Schlumberger, the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and others.

The IMSCS-HUB will benefit from the updated 45Q tax credit, requiring construction to begin by 2024, for CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and saline storage to offset the cost of capture and transport. Capture and transport costs for the hub are estimated to be between $41/tonne and $68/tonne depending on the scenario without the tax credit and between $15/tonne and $44/tonne with the tax credit.

The IMSCS-HUB will set the example for future integrated projects by combining CO₂ from multiple, varied, sources with storage in stacked saline formations and CO₂-enhanced oil recovery reservoirs allowing shared transport and surface infrastructure. The low cost and high readiness level of capture from ethanol plants, coupled with regional storage capacity means that the midcontinent is poised to take full advantage of the CO₂ tax credit in section 45Q of the US tax code. However, careful planning for pipeline routing and infrastructure development will be required to allow existing electric utilities to bring CO₂ to market as post-combustion capture becomes commercial. The addition of captured CO₂ from electric utilities would significantly increase capture and storage in the study area, from approximately 3 million tonnes per year to more than 10 million tonnes per year. Coal-fired utilities in the Midcontinent area produce some of the lowest cost power in the United States and are likely to produce power for decades to come.

The project is divided into a source corridor running East to West from Iowa across Nebraska and a stacked storage corridor running North to South from Nebraska through Kansas. The IMSCS-HUB is looking to capture CO₂ from multiple ethanol and power plants in the source corridor and transport it for stacked storage (Saline CO₂ storage and CO₂-EOR) in existing oil fields in the storage corridor.

The IMSCS-HUB program establishes a commercial-scale CO₂ storage hub consisting of multiple sources and storage sites by leveraging existing, proven technology for CO₂ capture and transport from nearby ethanol sources. This groundwork will provide the infrastructure and economic conditions required to successfully integrate carbon capture from nearby coal-fired power plants. The proposed storage hub will link numerous CO₂ sources in the Midwest to deep saline storage sites and depleted oil reservoirs in the sub-region.

This presentation will describe the process to select possible CO₂ sources for inclusion in the IMSCS-HUB including development of transportation infrastructure and routes considering both early ethanol and later electric utility source locations, along with estimated capture and transportation costs. The presentation also covers the process to identify and characterize stacked-storage sites in the region, including the estimation of storage capacities, storage costs, and methods of integration with CO₂ sources and transportation infrastructure.

A major goal of the second phase of the project is to conduct a detailed feasibility assessment of two geologic CO₂ storage complexes at potential sites; one in southwest Nebraska and one in Kansas. This presentation will also describe the data collection planning effort to identify gaps in geologic models, reservoir simulations, and regulatory understanding that may be addressed via new data acquisition to support Phase II objectives and prepare for future phases of the project. This presentation will cover the steps leading to data collection plans for both sites including updating existing geologic and reservoir models with recently available public and proprietary data, conducting a geologic and regulatory data gap analyses. The presentation will also detail the resulting data collection plans discussing the inclusion whole core acquisition and analysis, well testing, fluid sampling and analysis, basic and advanced wireline logging, and seismic data acquisition.

The new data collected in the Phase II field activities will support the feasibility analysis and provide initial characterization of the storage complexes at each potential site. This includes storage complex subsurface characterization and modeling, outreach activities, risk assessment, regulatory analysis and UIC permit planning, and commercial development strategies to help develop one or more 50-Mt-scale stacked storage sites in the Midcontinent region by 2025.