The study will help determine if carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Synfuels Plant can be cleaned up, creating more marketing options for this product.
Basin Electric and Dakota Gas are supporting a Lignite Energy Council (LEC)-funded study by the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) that will help determine if CO2 from the Synfuels Plant can be cleaned up, creating more marketing options for this product.
The Rectisol process at the Synfuels Plant separates a concentrated CO2 stream that, since 2000, has been sent by pipeline to the Canadian oil fields in Saskatchewan for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
“The Canadian oil already contains sulfur, so the addition of a bit of sulfur from the Synfuels Plant’s CO2 is not problematic,” Matt Greek, senior vice president of Research, Development, and Technology, said. “However, the CO2 from the Synfuels Plant is not desirable for use in its current state in the North Dakota sweet (low sulfur) oil fields.”
“If we’re able to reduce the sulfur content, it would give us more options for that CO2, and we think there would be potential for more lucrative projects tied to it,” Greek said.
The EERC study will examine options to modify the Rectisol process to create higher purity CO2.
Story courtesy of Basin Electric Power Cooperative