Wes Peck, project manager of the CarbonSAFE initiative, (L) answers questions at the Open House at the Center, ND, civic center on October 12.In mid-October, two open houses were held so people living in Oliver and Mercer Counties could ask the experts about the North Dakota CarbonSAFE project. The effort aims to address carbon dioxide emissions from large stationary sources, including coal-based power plants. The research will address technical, legal and political challenges associated with developing a commercial-scale underground CO2 storage facility.
The event on October 11 was held at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, which is already capturing and storing CO2 in partially depleted oil fields near Weyburn, Saskatchewan. On October 12, a second open house was held in Center’s civic center.
“The research being conducted as part of the CarbonSAFE Project is important to North Dakota’s lignite industry,” said Mac McLennan, Minnkota Power Cooperative’s president and CEO. “As Minnkota and others work to explore innovative carbon capture technologies, we also need to understand how we may use or store the carbon dioxide in a way that is safe, environmentally responsible and economically viable.”
On hand at the open houses were representatives of the Energy & Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which is managing the CarbonSAFE project. Also at the open houses were representatives of the project partners, which include the U.S. Department of Energy, the North Dakota Industrial Commission’s Lignite Research Program, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Minnkota Power Cooperative, ALLETE Clean Energy and BNI Energy.
The 2-year feasibility study runs from spring 2017 to spring 2019 and is part of the DOE’s nationwide, multi-year CarbonSAFE initiative structured to facilitate the development of commercial-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage projects ready to accept CO2 emissions from nearby power plants.
If the assessment of the technical aspects of the study suggest that a CO2 storage project in the area is feasible, the next step would be a detailed examination of the geology at possible specific storage sites.