Massive US Stimulus Funding for Development of Carbon Capture and Biofuels Research

May 16, 2009 by timbercommunity

Secretary Chu Announces $2.4 billion in Funding for Carbon Capture  - and $800 Million to Accelerate Biofuels Research

  
May 15, 2009
Secretary Chu Announces $2.4 billion in Funding for Carbon Capture and Storage Projects 
Funds to Advance Research, Development and Deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies and Infrastructure
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced at the National Coal Council that $2.4 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to expand and accelerate the commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The funding is part of the Obama Administration’s ongoing effort to develop technologies to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas and contributor to global climate change, into the atmosphere while creating new jobs.
"To prevent the worst effects of climate change, we must accelerate our efforts to capture and store carbon in a safe and cost-effective way.  This funding will both create jobs now and help position the United States to lead the world in CCS technologies, which will be in increasing demand in the years ahead," said Secretary Steven Chu.
The Department is posting Notices of Intent to issue this funding, supporting the following initiatives:
Clean Coal Power Initiative:  $800 million will be used to expand DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative, which provides government co-financing for new coal technologies that can help utilities cut sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollutants from power plants. The new funding will allow researchers broader CCS commercial-scale experience by expanding the range of technologies, applications, fuels, and geologic formations that are tested.
 
Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage:  $1.52 billion will be used for a two-part competitive solicitation for large-scale CCS from industrial sources.  The industrial sources include, but are not limited to, cement plants, chemical plants, refineries, steel and aluminum plants, manufacturing facilities, and petroleum coke-fired and other power plants.  The second part of the solicitation will include innovative concepts for beneficial CO2 reuse (CO2 mineralization, algae production, etc.) and CO2 capture from the atmosphere. In addition, two existing industrial and innovative reuse projects, previously selected via competitive solicitations, will be expanded to accelerate scale-up and field testing:
Ramgen Modification ($20 million): funding will allow the industrial-sized scale-up and testing of an existing advanced CO2 compression project with the objective of reducing time to commercialization, technology risk, and cost. Work on this project will be done in Bellevue, WA.
Arizona Public Services Modification ($70.6 million): funding will permit the existing algae-based carbon mitigation project to expand testing with a coal-based gasification system. The goal is to produce fuels from domestic resources while reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions.  The overall process will minimize production of carbon dioxide in the gasification process to produce a substitute natural gas (SNG) from coal. The host facility for this project is the Cholla Power Plant located in Holbrook, AZ.
Geologic Sequestration Site Characterization:  $50 million will fund a competitive solicitation to characterize a minimum of 10 geologic formations throughout the United States.  Projects will be required to complement and build upon the existing characterization base created by DOE’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, looking at broadening the range and extent of geologic basins that have been studied to date. The goal of this effort is to accelerate the determination of potential geologic storage sites.
 
Geologic Sequestration Training and Research:  $20 million will be used to educate and train a future generation of geologists, scientists, and engineers with skills and competencies in geology, geophysics, geomechanics, geochemistry and reservoir engineering disciplines needed to staff a broad national CCS program. This program will emphasize advancing educational opportunities across a broad range of minority colleges and universities and will use DOE’s University Coal Research Program as the model for implementing the program.
 
The funding from the Recovery Act is a direct investment in CCS-related infrastructure encompassing a diverse portfolio of research and demonstration among electric power and industrial facilities, academic institutions, and other organizations operating across the United States. DOE’s Recovery Act projects will stimulate private sector infrastructure investments due to the significant amount of cost sharing that will occur in all large-scale projects to be selected for implementation.  These combined public and private investments will establish a proving ground for creating a safe, reliable, widely-available, environmentally-responsible, and affordable CCS infrastructure.
 
$800 Million to Accelerate Biofuels Research (originally posted May 5, 2009)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of the ongoing effort to increase the use of domestic renewable fuels, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced plans to provide $786.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate advanced biofuels research and development and to provide additional funding for commercial-scale biorefinery demonstration projects.
 
“Developing the next generation of biofuels is key to our effort to end our dependence on foreign oil and address the climate crisis -- while creating millions of new jobs that can't be outsourced,” Secretary Chu said. “With American investment and ingenuity -- and resources grown right here at home -- we can lead the way toward a new green energy economy.”
 
The DOE biomass program will leverage DOE’s national laboratories, universities, and the private sector to help improve biofuels reliability and overcome key technical challenges, with the goal of creating third-generation biofuels like green gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels.
 
 The $786.5 million in Recovery Act funding is a mix of new funding opportunities and additional funding for existing projects. It will be allocated across four main areas:
 
$480 million solicitation for integrated pilot- and demonstration-scale biorefineries
 
Projects selected under this Funding Opportunity Announcement will work to validate integrated biorefinery technologies that produce advanced biofuels, bioproducts, and heat and power in an integrated system, thus enabling private financing of commercial-scale replications.
 
DOE anticipates making 10 to 20 awards for refineries at various scales and designs, all to be operational in the next three years.  The DOE funding ceiling is $25 million for pilot-scale projects and $50 million for demonstration scale projects.
 
These integrated biorefineries will reduce dependence on petroleum-based transportation fuels and chemicals. They will also facilitate the development of an "advanced biofuels" industry to meet the federal Renewable Fuel Standards.
 
$176.5 million for commercial-scale biorefinery projects
 
$176.5 million will be used to increase the federal funding ceiling on two or more demonstration- or commercial-scale biorefinery projects that were selected and awarded within the last two years.
 
The goal of these efforts is to reduce the risk of the development and deployment of these first-of-a-kind operations. These funds are expected to expedite the construction phase of these projects and ultimately accelerate the timeline for start up and commissioning.
 
$110 million for fundamental research in key program areas
 
The Biomass Program plans to use $110 million to support fundamental research in key program areas, distributed in the following manner:
 
Expand the resources available for sustainability research through the Office of Science Bioenergy Research Centers and establish a user-facility/small-scale integrated pilot plant ($25 million);
 
Create an advanced research consortium to develop technologies and facilitate subsequent demonstration of infrastructure-compatible biofuels through a competitive solicitation ($35 million); and
 
Create an algal biofuels consortium to accelerate demonstration of algal biofuels through a competitive solicitation ($50 million).
This funding will help to develop cutting-edge conversion technologies, including generating more desirable catalysts, fuel-producing microbes, and feedstocks.
 
 
$20 million for ethanol research
The Biomass Program is planning to use $20 million of the Recovery Act funding in a competitive solicitation to achieve the following:
Optimize flex-fuel vehicles operating on high octane E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline blend);
Evaluate the impact of higher ethanol blends in conventional vehicles; and
Upgrade existing refueling infrastructure to be compatible with fuels up to E85.
For more information on these and other Recovery Act related funding opportunities, visit energy.gov/recovery.
Media contact(s):
(202) 586-4940