On September 15, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) made an announcement, unveiling a funding initiative of up to $27 million. This funding is specifically reserved for the transportation of carbon dioxide emissions captured from industrial facilities, marking another pivotal step in the endeavor to combat climate change.
The primary objective of this funding initiative is to facilitate the transport of carbon dioxide, which can serve two purposes: the permanent storage of carbon in geologic reservoirs and the delivery of carbon to designated sites where it may be converted into other products, such as building materials or feedstock to manufacture fuels. It is worth noting that in North America alone, there are over 200 identified sedimentary basins with the potential to store carbon dioxide.
This funding is a component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy known as Investing in America, an agenda aimed at mobilizing private sector investments and facilitating the resurgence of manufacturing within the U.S. The move is significant in supporting the development of large-scale carbon storage as it is essential for the U.S. Administration’s clean energy goals and the climate targets outlined by the Paris Agreement.
“The United States will need to capture and permanently store significant quantities of carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decades to reach the Biden Administration’s decarbonization goals,” said Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management.
Carbon dioxide can be transported via pipelines, railways, trucks, barges, or ships. It’s typically transported as a supercritical fluid when being delivered for permanent geologic storage. In order to fulfill climate objectives, a transport network for CO2 is crucial and urgently needed. The carbon capture and storage industry is expected to snowball and it’s paramount that the infrastructure evolves to meet the escalating demands.
The financial support provided by this funding will help advance the engineering and studies required to develop a system capable of safely transporting large sums of CO2. These studies and projects will focus on transportation costs, network configurations, and commercial considerations. Each study can expect to receive up to $3 million in funding.
