At a special Lignite Research Council meeting today, the LRC members voted in favor of a carbon dioxide capture and storage project involving the Blue Flint Ethanol Plant, adjacent to the Coal Creek Station, without a payback provision.

Blue Flint Ethanol sits adjacent to the Coal Creek Station near Underwood, North Dakota.

The LRC had passed the $3.4 million project last month, but had included a contingency provision; however, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which oversees the Lignite Research Program had asked the LRC to take another look as the importance of the CO2 project to the ethanol plant and possibly to the adjacent coal-based power plant.

Today, the vote was 19 in favor of the proposal without the payback provision, with one no vote and one abstention.

The proposal will now go back before the North Dakota Industrial Commission for its vote on June 19.

The NDIC is a partner with the regional lignite industry in the Lignite Research Program. State dollars are leveraged with industry investments for research and demonstration projects. Since 1987 when the partnership began, the state has invested more than $60 million in lignite research funds. Total investment in more than 190-plus projects is in excess of $700 million.