Advancing widespread use of carbon-management technologies is receiving at $131 million push from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the agency announced recently.
The 33 selected projects will research and develop ways to tackle the technical challenges of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution and evaluate existing and potential storage options, the DOE states in the Jan. 30 announcement. The projects are expected to increase the number of commercial capture and storage sites, the DOE states.
"Expanding commercial CO2 storage capacity and related carbon management industries will provide economic opportunities for communities and workers," the DOE reports in the announcement, "helping to deliver on President Biden’s goal of equitably achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."
Droughts, floods and risks to agriculture, water supply and health are increased by CO2 emissions. Carbon capture technologies capture and store CO2 emissions at the source, such as industrial sites and power plants; CO2 removal technologies take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. The DOE reports that capture and storage technologies can potentially eliminate hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 pollution annually.
Carbon Management funding will give 22 projects $38 million to develop technologies that capture CO2 emissions from either a source or the atmosphere and transport it to a permanent storage facility or to be processed into fuels and chemicals, the announcement reports.
CarbonSAFE grants totaling $93 million will fund 11 projects awarded under the CarbonSAFE: Phase II - Storage Complex Feasibility opportunity, according to the DOE. These projects will focus on improving the procedures "to safely, efficiently, and affordably assess onshore and offshore CO2 project sites within a storage complex at a commercial scale," the DOE states.
“By deploying tools to capture, remove, and store CO2 emissions, we can dramatically reduce the air pollution harming our health and intensifying extreme weather events,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in the announcement.
“The projects announced today will get us closer to achieving our climate goals while helping to revitalize local economies and deliver environmental benefits to communities too often left behind.”
