Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy and NETL have announced up to $131 million for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) research and development (R&D) projects through one new funding opportunity announcement (FOA) and the winners of five project selections from a previous FOA. 

Under the new FOA, Engineering-Scale Testing from Coal- and Natural-Gas-Based Flue Gas and Initial Engineering Design for Industrial Sources, DOE is making up to $46 million available for cost-shared R&D projects that capture and store carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from industrial sources. 

CCUS is often viewed in the context of power production. However, capture and storage of CO₂ from industrial sources is also vitally important to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Adapting these new carbon capture technologies to make them applicable to industrial sources of emissions is just one of the ways the Trump Administration is using innovation over regulation to reduce emissions while using all of the reliable energy sources at our disposal,” said Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “This week, as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we celebrate the advancements made when applying these technologies to new sectors. These advancements mark another milestone for the Department, which has been developing and improving the technology across the CCUS value chain for over 20 years.” 

Selected projects will support engineering studies of carbon capture systems for industrial sources and testing of advanced carbon capture materials, processes, or a combination of advanced materials and processes for fossil fuel energy plants. 

The projects will fall under two areas of interest: (1) Initial Engineering Design for CO₂ Capture from Industrial Sources; and (2) Engineering-Scale Testing of Transformational Post-Combustion CO₂ Capture Technologies. Read more details about this funding opportunity and the application process HERE . 

Under the previously announced FOA, Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE): Site Characterization and CO₂ Capture Assessment, DOE selected five projects to receive $85 million to accelerate the wide-scale deployment of CCUS technologies.  

“Carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies are key to addressing global emissions issues, particularly important in developing nations, by making carbon-intensive  production and generation cleaner than we ever thought possible,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. “The projects resulting from these two funding opportunities represent an impactful next step that will benefit our Nation, economy, and our global environment for decades to come.” 

The projects selected under this FOA will (1) assess and verify safe and cost-effective commercial-scale geologic storage sites for anthropogenic CO₂ emissions; and (2) assess the technical and economic viability of carbon capture or purification technologies for sources that will supply CO₂ to the storage sites. Read the full project descriptions HERE . 

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the projects from both FOAs. 

More information about NETL is available HERE . To learn more about the programs within the Office of Fossil Energy, visit their website HERE .