ICKan

2018 Carbon Capture and Utilization for Kansas Conference. On July 26, 2018 the Kansas Geological Survey and the State CO₂ EOR Deployment Workgroup (State Workgroup) hosted its second Carbon Capture and Utilization in Kansas conference. The meeting was held in the Beren Conference Center in the recently opened Earth Energy & Environment Center at the University of Kansas. More...

On December 19, Senator Orrin Hatch, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, included 45Q extension and reform in Tax Extender Act of 2017 (OTT17901) which he filed on December 19. The filing of this piece of legislation, to be considered early this year, is a huge step towards getting 45Q tax credits extended and broadened. Proposed 45Q expansion would make large-scale capture and pipeline infrastructure economically attractive.

The Section 45Q carbon sequestration tax credits, as introduced in the Future Act S. 1535, was included in the Bipartisan Budget Act that was enacted into law on February 9, 2018.

Enactment of this legislation increases the tax credit from $10 to $35 per ton for CO₂ stored in EOR or used in other products, and from $20 to $50 per ton for CO₂ sequestered in geologic storage, and is available to projects for CO₂ captured over a 12 year period.

Lifting the program cap resulted in the program becoming subject to a commence construction deadline of January 1, 2024 for a project to be eligible to claim the credits, and removes the uncertainty that was attributed to the original program.

The enactment of these tax credits is the result of the time and effort invested by the Carbon Utilization Research Council members—not only to develop a winning, bipartisan proposal that would result in the support of a diverse coalition of interests, but also due to the dedication necessary to educate, advocate and lobby for these tax credits that is required to achieve successful outcomes like this.

Additional info...

• Background info on 45Q Carbon Sequestration Tax Credit Reform from the Carbon Utilization Research Council (Acrobat PDF, 103 kB)
• Comparison of Current Law to FUTURE Act of 2017 from the Carbon Utilization Research Council (Acrobat PDF, 117 kB)
• Press Release from the Carbon Utilization Research Council (Acrobat PDF, 144 kB)

On February 15, three team members of the Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage for Kansas Project (ICKan) were hosted by Westar Energy Company at their Jeffrey Energy Center facility in St. Marys and by CHS Inc.'s refinery in McPherson. Westar and CHS are industry partners to the Kansas Geological Survey's ICKan project, a part of the U.S. DOE/NETL's CarbonSAFE program. The focus of this initial visit was to gather and exchange technical information and discuss means to optimize CO₂ capture within the context of the plant layout and operations at the respective sites.

Steam billows from Westar's three 800 Mw electrical generation units on a brisk February morning at the Jeffrey Energy Center in St. Marys Kansas.

Following the one-day, "all hands" kick-off meeting for ICKan attended by more than 30 individuals from seven industry partners, four sub-contractors to the project, Kansas Geological Survey staff, and other interested parties, Martin Dubois, Joint-PI, Improved Hydrocarbon Recovery, Krish Krishnamurthy, Head of Group R&D in the Americas for Linde having responsibility for Linde's carbon capture program, and Yevhen (Eugene) Holubnyak, Petroleum Engineer for the KGS visited the two possible industrial sources for CO₂.

Mike Smith (Senior Engineer for Westar), right, and Krish Krishnamurthy (Linde) discuss possible locations to capture surplus heat for use in the CO₂ capture process. Smith and Dan Wilkus, Westar's Director of Air Programs hosted the plant tour.

CHS, Inc. engineers and ICKan Project engineers discuss CO₂ capture possibilities from CHS's two hydrogen reformers (one in background). From left, Richard Johnson, Process Engineering and Development Manager, Krishnamurthy, Holubnyak, and Clint Janzen, Operations Engineer.

On November 30, 2016, the U.S. DOE announced that the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) and the University of Kansas as recipients of a $1.2M grant for the $1.5M ICKan Project. The 18-month Phase I of a potentially four-Phase project is termed a pre-feasibility study. Phase I objectives include identifying, evaluating, and developing plans to address the major technical and non-technical challenges of implementing commercial-scale CO₂ capture, transport, and secure geologic storage in Kansas.

Joint-Principal Investigators, Tandis Bidgoli and Martin Dubois welcome the full team to the ICKan Kickoff Meeting held at the Kansas Geological Survey on February 14th, 2017. Policy and regulatory participants included representatives from the Great Plains Institute based in Minneapolis, MN, the law firm of Depew Gillen Rathbun & McInteer in Wichita, and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Industry representatives included Westar Energy, Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, CHS Refinery in McPherson, Linde LLC, and numerous Kansas oil and gas operators.

Brendan Jordan, Vice President of the Great Plains Institute in Minneapolis, MN, presents on the current status of legal, regulatory, and public policies regarding carbon capture and storage (CCS) during the Kickoff morning session.

Joint-Principal Investigator, Tandis Bidgoli, Assistant Scientist in the Kansas Geological Survey's Energy Research Section, presents on the risks for storage sites involved in CCS. Key highlights during her talk emphasized the importance of brine disposal and links to induced seismicity around the region.

Also available is the agenda for the meeting, held on Tues., Feb. 14, at the Kansas Geological Survey offices in Lawrence.