The Biden-Harris Administration will expand carbon dioxide (CO2) transportation and storage infrastructure with the $251m investment.

Part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has already selected 12 projects that will benefit from the capital to boost both new and existing projects.

It is hoped the effort will both significantly and responsibly reduce CO2 emissions from power generation and industrial opportunities.

The DOE notes that expanding commercial CO2 transport and storage will provide new economic opportunities and help achieve President Biden’s goal of a Net Zero emissions economy by 2050.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm adds that the DOE is working to build out the infrastructure needed to slash harmful carbon pollution from industry and the power sector, revitalise local economies and unlock public health benefits.

Carbon storage validation and testing project selections

The following nine projects were selected for a total of $242m in funding to support the development of large-scale, commercial carbon storage projects with a 50 or more million metric tonnes of CO2 storage capacity.

• Bluebonnet Sequestration Hub(Houston, Texas), $16,480,117: Plans to complete the site characterisation, permitting, and environmental approvals for the Bluebonnet Sequestration Hub along the Texas Gulf Coast, with potential for more than 350 million metric tonnes of total CO2 storage capacity.

• BP Corporation North America (Houston, Texas), $33,411,193: BP will focus on the development of two commercial-scale storage sites along the Texas Gulf Coast with the capacity to ultimately store up to 15 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year.

• Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colorado), $32,671,554: Plans include the development of a regional CO2 storage hub to address emissions from cement, hydrogen, and power plants.

• Magnolia Sequestration Hub, LLC (Houston, Texas), $21,570,784: Intends to complete the site characterisation, permitting, and environmental approvals for the Magnolia Sequestration Hub in Allen Parish, Louisiana, with an estimated 300 million metric tonnes of total CO2 storage capacity.

• Southern States Energy Board (Peachtree Corners, Georgia), $17,984,523: Hopes to develop a storage hub near Bucks, Alabama, for CO2 sourced from a variety of industries, including electric generation and steel manufacturing.

• Timberlands Sequestration (Houston, Texas), $23,779,020: Intends to complete site characterisation efforts to develop a biomass carbon removal and storage project for the Alabama River Cellulose pulp and paper mill locations in Monroe County, Alabama.

• University of Illinois (Champaign, Illinois), $17,736,972: The university hopes to develop the Cambrian Mt. Simon Sandstone/Eau Claire Formation storage complex for the storage of CO2 from the Dallman Power Generation Plant in Springfield, Illinois, and around 50 million metric tonnes of total CO2 storage capacity.

• University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Centre (Grand Forks, North Dakota), $38,148,520: Plans include the development of a CO2 storage hub in central North Dakota, with CO2 to be sourced from electric generation and ethanol production and around 200 million metric tonnes of total CO2 storage capacity.

• University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyoming), $40,504,935: Plans to advance a commercial, multi-source, large-scale carbon capture and storage hub in Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming, with CO2 sourced from trona mining ad direct air capture facilities.

CO2 transportation engineering and design project selections

The following three projects were also selected to benefit from a total of $9,000 of the funding announcement.

• Carbon Solutions (Okemos, Michigan), $3,000,000: Will perform a study for a commercial-scale, state-wide pipeline system capable of transporting up to 120 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year building primarily on portions of the Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative.

• Howard Midstream Energy Partners (San Antonio, Texas), $3,000,000: Will perform a study for a system capable of moving up to 250 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year from multiple sources to multiple storage locations on the Gulf Coast from the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, to the Mississippi River.

• Southern States Energy Board (Peachtree Corners, Georgia), $3,000,000: Will perform a study for a regional-scale CO2 transport system in the Houston-Galveston region along the Texas Gulf Coast to move at least eight million metric tonnes of CO2 a year.