Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major topic. We know it’s a greenhouse gas and can cause global warming, we also know that farms can store large amounts of carbon in the soil, trees and hedgerows.
Carbon is taken from the air and stored in plants and trees or the soil.
This reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and can reduce global warming.
In the US, companies are now starting to inject carbon deep into the ground to store and take it out of the atmosphere, reducing emissions and its contribution to global warming.
During our visit to ADM’s processing facilities in Decatur, we saw the company’s carbon capture and storage project and how it is taking the carbon dioxide produced from fermentation in the production of ethanol and sending that carbon dioxide into pipes and eventually into storage underground.
Injection well
Instead of ending up in the atmosphere this carbon dioxide travels just a short distance down the road to an injection well where it is pumped about 1.3 miles underground.
When you see this injection point it doesn’t look like much. It looks a bit like a pump in a square of gravel. Underneath the ground there is a layer of shale and under that shale there is sandstone.
This is the natural make-up of the area’s bedrock. Sandstone has high porosity. It has 25% pore space and is highly permeable. It can soak up the CO2.
Once the CO2 is pumped into the sandstone, the 550ft layer of shale above it seals that CO2 into the ground. It should be noted that before the CO2 is pumped into the ground it is compressed.
On a tour of the Decatur plant we visited these facilities.
The CO2 is collected at atmospheric pressure from the corn-to-ethanol fermenters via a 36-inch pipe. Moisture is removed from the gas and it is cooled.
The CO2 then travels one mile in an 8” pipe to the well head at a 200ac site.
Where is the C02 being stored?
The CO2 is being stored in The Mount Simon Sandstone. This sandstone lies more than 1 mile below Decatur in Illinois.
The well head at ADM's Carbon Capture and Storage facility in Decatur, Illinois. Main picture.
It is 1,600ft thick at this location and according to scientists we met at the site it is the deepest sandstone basin in the Illinois Basin. This is a bowl-shaped geological feature that has thousands of feet of rock and lies under most of the state of Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky. The shale which seals the sandstone has low permeability and so is able to keep the CO2 in place.
The Mount Simon Sandstone las large storage capacity and can hold approximately one million tonnes of CO2 in a radius of about a quarter of a mile from an injection well.
How has the project progressed?
ADM started this project, along with Richland Community College, back in 2011 and hit a goal of storing one million tonnes of CO2 by 2014. By 30 September 2022 a total of 3.63 million tonnes were stored.
In total these projects remove the amount of emissions from the atmosphere equivalent to about 100,000 cars.
The success of the project has meant that ADM is expanding the current capacity for carbon capture and storage in Decatur. A pipeline will carry CO2 from ADM’s facilities in Cedar Rapids in the state of Iowa to the storage facility in Decatur.
Other processing facilities are being connected to carbon storage facilities in other states.
Over the past decade ADM has stored about 3.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide about 1.5 miles under ground. ADM has worked with many federal agencies and researchers to ensure that the carbon capture and storage project is safe. The carbon is stored well below drinking water supplies. Monitoring tools are in place to monitor the impact the project could have on groundwater, surface area and the underground activity, including seismic activity (earthquakes and vibrations). These projects are now beginning to pop up across the US and are becoming a popular way of storing carbon underground. While in the US, the Irish Farmers Journal also met with Lakeview Energy, headed up by Irish men Eamonn Byrne and Jim Galvin who are also working on a carbon capture and storage project.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major topic. We know it’s a greenhouse gas and can cause global warming, we also know that farms can store large amounts of carbon in the soil, trees and hedgerows.
Carbon is taken from the air and stored in plants and trees or the soil.
This reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and can reduce global warming.
In the US, companies are now starting to inject carbon deep into the ground to store and take it out of the atmosphere, reducing emissions and its contribution to global warming.
During our visit to ADM’s processing facilities in Decatur, we saw the company’s carbon capture and storage project and how it is taking the carbon dioxide produced from fermentation in the production of ethanol and sending that carbon dioxide into pipes and eventually into storage underground.
Injection well
Instead of ending up in the atmosphere this carbon dioxide travels just a short distance down the road to an injection well where it is pumped about 1.3 miles underground.
When you see this injection point it doesn’t look like much. It looks a bit like a pump in a square of gravel. Underneath the ground there is a layer of shale and under that shale there is sandstone.
This is the natural make-up of the area’s bedrock. Sandstone has high porosity. It has 25% pore space and is highly permeable. It can soak up the CO2.
Once the CO2 is pumped into the sandstone, the 550ft layer of shale above it seals that CO2 into the ground. It should be noted that before the CO2 is pumped into the ground it is compressed.
On a tour of the Decatur plant we visited these facilities.
The CO2 is collected at atmospheric pressure from the corn-to-ethanol fermenters via a 36-inch pipe. Moisture is removed from the gas and it is cooled.
The CO2 then travels one mile in an 8” pipe to the well head at a 200ac site.
Where is the C02 being stored?
The CO2 is being stored in The Mount Simon Sandstone. This sandstone lies more than 1 mile below Decatur in Illinois.
The well head at ADM's Carbon Capture and Storage facility in Decatur, Illinois. Main picture.
It is 1,600ft thick at this location and according to scientists we met at the site it is the deepest sandstone basin in the Illinois Basin. This is a bowl-shaped geological feature that has thousands of feet of rock and lies under most of the state of Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky. The shale which seals the sandstone has low permeability and so is able to keep the CO2 in place.
The Mount Simon Sandstone las large storage capacity and can hold approximately one million tonnes of CO2 in a radius of about a quarter of a mile from an injection well.
How has the project progressed?
ADM started this project, along with Richland Community College, back in 2011 and hit a goal of storing one million tonnes of CO2 by 2014. By 30 September 2022 a total of 3.63 million tonnes were stored.
In total these projects remove the amount of emissions from the atmosphere equivalent to about 100,000 cars.
The success of the project has meant that ADM is expanding the current capacity for carbon capture and storage in Decatur. A pipeline will carry CO2 from ADM’s facilities in Cedar Rapids in the state of Iowa to the storage facility in Decatur.
Other processing facilities are being connected to carbon storage facilities in other states.
Over the past decade ADM has stored about 3.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide about 1.5 miles under ground. ADM has worked with many federal agencies and researchers to ensure that the carbon capture and storage project is safe. The carbon is stored well below drinking water supplies. Monitoring tools are in place to monitor the impact the project could have on groundwater, surface area and the underground activity, including seismic activity (earthquakes and vibrations). These projects are now beginning to pop up across the US and are becoming a popular way of storing carbon underground. While in the US, the Irish Farmers Journal also met with Lakeview Energy, headed up by Irish men Eamonn Byrne and Jim Galvin who are also working on a carbon capture and storage project.
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