The US Department of Energy has announced a $127.5m funding announcement to support carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, removal, and conversion centres for cement manufacturing sites and power plants.
Announced through the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), the funding will focus on three key areas in support of achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of Net Zero emissions by 2050.
A proportion of the funding will be put towards the establishment of a carbon capture, removal, and conversion test centre at an electric generating unit. This will focus on providing post-combustion flue gas testing capabilities representative of domestic coal and/or natural gas-based power systems.
In addition to the test centre at the electric generating site, a new carbon capture, removal, and conversion technology test centre will also be established at a cement manufacturing facility. This will enable testing with flue gas representatives of domestic cement production, ensuring that the technology is tailored to the needs of the industry.
Cement has previously been identified as a huge opportunity for carbon capture technology. It is the most widely used substance on Earth, after water, and is responsible for around 8% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, making it one of the most polluting manufacturing sectors.
Read more: Trapping CO2 is a concrete reality
The US DOE has also reserved a proportion of funding for improving existing centres.
Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, said, “Investments in test centres will help reduce costs, minimise environmental risks, scale up carbon capture, removal, and conversion processes to commercial scale, and ultimately help reduce carbon pollution.”
Crabtree further notes carbon capture and storage as one of the critical pathways for significantly reducing domestic and global CO2 emissions.
Projects selected under the funding opportunity will support testing facilities to further advance technologies to capture and convert CO2 into products from utility and industrial sources or remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), around 45 commercial facilities are in operation, applying carbon capture, utilisation and storage to industrial processes, fuel transformation, and power generation.
The IEA further notes that CCUS deployments are lower than expectations. In 2023, the announced carbon capture capacity for 2030 increased by 35%, while announced storage capacity rose by 70%. This brings the total amount of CO2 that could be captured in 2030 to around 435 million tonnes per year and announced storage capacity to around 615 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
North American CO2 Summit 2024
Join gasworld in September 2024 as our North American CO2 Summit heads to Nashville. More information including our theme and agenda will be released over the coming weeks – you can register your interest to ensure you stay updated.
Our North American CO2 Summit 2023 agenda was focused on how to source, move and use CO2 more effectively and sold out, so we recommend securing your space.
Interested in speaking and contributing? Get in touch with our Content Director, Rob Cockerill, at [email protected]
To attend, sponsor and for more information, visit https://bit.ly/GWCO2NA-S24
