Project Overview
The Integrated Midcontinent Stacked Storage Carbon Hub (IMSCS HUB) builds on lessons learned from the US Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL) Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs). This program is the first large-scale project for the midcontinent and represents an important step forward in storage scale, exceeding the 50 million tonne (Mt) safe storage objective identified in DE-FOA-0001450. 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. This proposal is based on the combination of three Phase I CarbonSAFE projects; helping to consolidate resources and align efforts into one strategy for achieving a successful commercial-scale storage project in the Midcontinent Region. The Phase I projects were the IMSCS-HUB led by Battelle, The Nebraska Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Pre-Feasibility Study led by EERC, and the Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage for Kansas (ICKan) led by KGS. The team has identified a clear strategy that will meet DOE's 2025 objective of commercial implementation by developing a commercial CO2 market and infrastructure relying on multiple ethanol-based CO2 sources in the short term and the incorporation of multiple coal-fired power plants when commercial CO2 capture is implemented. 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. This program will establish a commercial scale CO2 storage hub consisting of multiple sources and storage sites by leveraging existing, proved 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.
The project team has over 20 years of experience in geologic CO2 storage. Battelle and EERC lead two of the seven RCSPs implemented by DOE in 2003. Considering all previous projects, Battelle and EERC have injected 2.3 Mt and 4.5 Mt of CO2, respectively. KGS has been conducting CO2 storage research since 1998 and has worked with industry partners on successful injection of CO2 for EOR in Kansas at Wellington Field (20,000 tonnes) [DEFE0006821] and the Hall-Gurney Field (7,000 tonnes) [DE-AC-00BC15124], and submission of one US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI well permit. ADM is the industrial CO2 source for the Midwest Geologic Sequestration Consortium’s (MGSC) Illinois Basin-Decatur Project (IBDP) and the Illinois Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage (ICCS) injection project and has injected 1.5 Mt of CO2 at Decatur, IL. ADM is the only CO2 source in the U.S. with experience permitting Class VI CO2 storage wells through the injection stage. Schlumberger has provided services and expertise to all major DOE demonstration projects since 2008 and has been involved with all RCSP projects since 2006. As part of the Phase I IMSCS Hub Project CSD-UNL brings key expertise in local outreach and geology.
Work completed independently in Phase I as part of Battelle's IMSCS Hub Project and KGS's ICKan Project shows that deep saline storage zones in the Sleepy Hollow and Patterson study areas are both able to store 50 Mt of CO2 or more. The existence of multiple Phase I projects in the area and the wealth of information described in the Project State of Development show that the Paleozoic complex at potential sites southwest NE and KS are well suited for a commercial-scale storage hub. Two selected areas with high potential for commercial-scale CO2 storage have been identified as potential sites for further characterization during Phase II. The Patterson site in Kearny County, southwestern Kansas, is comprised of three oilfields over an area of 36 mi2 and is one of five closed geologic structures in the North Hugoton Storage Complex (NHSC). The Sleepy Hollow study area, located in Red Willow County, southwestern Nebraska, is delineated by a high-density cluster of wells (one well per 40 acres) over approximately 28 mi2, and encompasses the most productive oilfield in the state. Existing hydrocarbon resources at the two selected study areas, and the potential for a hybrid of CO2-EOR and geologic storage may provide technical advantages, infrastructure, and economic incentives needed to successfully commercialize CCS in the region.
This project will enable commercialization of a regional storage hub before 2025. The hub is divided, initially, into two corridors. One corridor is a source corridor that collects CO2 from up to 18 ethanol plants running between Blair, NE and Hitchcock County, NE. The second corridor is a stacked-storage corridor that runs between southwest NE to southwest KS. The corridor concept allows commercialization of a robust reliable source of CO2 and connection to robust reliable storage in the form multiple stacked-storage sites. Stacked-storage in the region will include CO2-EOR and saline storage in multiple reservoirs at individual sites. The inclusion of CO2-EOR in the business model provides an additional driver for a commercial CO2 market that will fund infrastructure development. To meet the requirements of DE-FOA 0001450 federal funds will only be used to characterize deep saline storage zones.
The incorporation of multiple sources and multiple storage sites creates the reliability needed to provide certainty that CO2 and storage space will be available, allowing commercial operations to proceed with minimal interruptions. The two largest initial ethanol sources are ADM's Columbus, NE plant (1.1 Mt/year CO2) and Cargill's Blair, NE plant (0.6 Mt/ year CO2). Sources will be able to sign CO2 offtake agreements and be sure that their CO2 will be stored, and stacked-storage operators can sign offtake agreements to be sure of a constant supply of CO2. The corridor concept is needed because the sources of reliable CO2 are not underlain by reservoirs sufficient for commercial CO2 storage. After initial commercialization employing ethanol sources additional sources will be added, including Nebraska Public Power District's (NPPD) Gerald Gentleman Station (GGS) in NE, Westar's Jeffrey Energy Center (JEC), and Sunflower Energy's Holcomb Station in KS. A staged approach to sources is the best way to exceed the 2025 commercialization timeline. Ethanol capture has been proved at commercial scale at the IBDP project ADM and can be easily incorporated into the ethanol production process, as was done in Decatur. Staged incorporation of sources allows time for post combustion capture processes to be developed without waiting to start storing CO2.