NETL’s Carbon Transport and Storage Program features on-site world-class leaders, scientists, and engineers and the engineering and scientific expertise to manage external research projects that further Department of Energy (DOE) Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) goals. The program’s accomplishments promote the growth of good-paying jobs, especially to those in disadvantaged or burdened communities.

An extensive roster of research successes for 2023 included these key milestones.

DOE Released Toolkit To Assess Induced Seismicity at CO₂ Storage Sites

A forecasting toolkit developed jointly by a pair of DOE initiatives and funded, in part, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping operators of underground CO₂ storage sites assess the likelihood and magnitude of seismic activity that could arise from commercial-scale injection.

NETL Managed Landmark Research To Protect Caprock Integrity at Carbon Storage Sites

An experiment completed with NETL oversight is generating important insights about the behavior of faults and other seismic activity when CO₂ is injected into geologic formations. Completed at the Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory in Switzerland, the experiment involved injecting water mixed with CO₂ into a subsurface fault for approximately five hours. The injection caused a controlled CO₂-induced fault slip to determine its impact on the caprock that prevents CO₂ leakage. The work completed in Switzerland by NETL partners at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Rice University marked the first time a mixture of CO₂ and water was injected into a fault.

Deep Learning Tool Ensured Safe Carbon Storage Developed in NETL-Sponsored Project

Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals Inc. (Zanskar), with NETL support, developed a deep learning tool for subsurface monitoring that could help ensure safe storage of CO₂ at geologic sites, which is critical for meeting the nation’s decarbonization goals.

NETL Collaborated with U. S. Steel To Capture Greenhouse Gas at Edgar Thomson Plant

NETL and United States Steel Corporation announced plans to test an advanced membrane technology to capture CO₂ emissions generated by steelmaking operations at the Company’s Edgar Thomson Plant, in Braddock, Pennsylvania. The project is part of DOE/NETL Point Source Carbon Capture Program. Point source carbon capture from industrial facilities, such as iron and steel manufacturing plants, is a vital element to reduce CO₂ emissions and meet the nation’s goals to address climate change.

NETL Released Updated Version of CO2_T_COM Transport Cost Model

NETL released an updated version of its popular open-source tool that helps industry decision makers, planners, and researchers calculate the cost of transporting CO₂ by pipeline from where it is captured to where it can be stored underground or converted into useful products. The tool, supported by DOE FECM and known as the CO₂ Transport Cost Model (CO2_T_COM), is an Excel-based tool that estimates revenues and capital, operating, and financing costs for transporting liquid phase CO₂ by pipeline.

NETL and Partnered To Develop Novel Embedded Sensors for Subsurface Wellbore Integrity

NETL and its partner organizations successfully developed and demonstrated a suite of embedded sensor technologies with sensing materials for subsurface wellbore integrity monitoring — technology that can help realize effective geologic carbon storage, hydrogen storage and geothermal projects and reduce the wellbore integrity risks.

NETL Developed Pipeline Route Planning Database To Guide CO₂ Transport Decisions

Strategically planning safe and sustainable routes for transportation of CO₂ is a critical priority in achieving a greenhouse gas-neutral economy by 2050. NETL has responded to that challenge by creating an expansive and accessible Carbon Capture and Storage Pipeline Route Planning Database to guide routing decisions and increase transportation safety. NETL has identified technical gaps, prioritized research needs, and developed tools to facilitate and optimize a robust, national-scale CO₂ transportation infrastructure.

NETL Supported Liftoff of Airborne Technology To Monitor Carbon Storage Sites

A team led by NETL researchers launched airborne technology at a commercial-scale CO₂ geologic storage site in Mississippi to complete a first-of-its-kind electromagnetic survey and collect data needed to monitor greenhouse gas sequestered in the subsurface. Large-scale carbon sequestration needs to be closely monitored to ensure the greenhouse gas does not escape the protective layer of cap rock.

NETL Data Portal Accelerated Completion of Permit Applications for Carbon Storage

NETL launched a new data portal that provides information needed to accelerate the process of completing federal drilling permit applications to sequester CO₂ in the subsurface. NETL developed the Class VI Data Support Tool Geodatabase by using data from the Carbon Storage Open Database, the Energy Data eXchange (EDX), the U.S. Geological Survey and other sources. The geodatabase is free and publicly available. It is hosted on EDX, NETL’s virtual data collaboration and curation platform for data-driven technology development.

NETL Project Partner Demonstrated Over 2.8 Million Tonnes of CO₂ Capture From Ethanol Production and its Deep Geologic Storage in Mount Simon Sandstone

Food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), with support from NETL, demonstrated an integrated system of processing CO₂ and transporting it from an ethanol plant to the Mt. Simon Sandstone saline reservoir for permanent geologic storage. This is the largest demonstration of its kind in the United States. The system demonstrated by ADM at the company’s Agricultural Processing and Biofuels Plant, located in Decatur, Illinois, collected CO₂ produced as a byproduct of processing corn into fuel-grade ethanol.