The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and Southern Company Services, Inc. will continue the operation and maintenance of existing test facilities at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) to provide a platform for the evaluation of third-party technologies to reduce the cost of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants and to advance CO₂ utilization technologies and negative emissions technologies, such as direct air capture (DAC). The NCCC provides support in design, procurement, construction, installation, operation, data collection and analysis, and reporting in compliance with environmental and government regulations. The NCCC includes multiple, adaptable slipstream units that allow simultaneous testing of third-party laboratory-, bench-, and pilot-scale advanced CO₂ capture technologies from diverse fuel sources at commercially relevant process conditions.

More than 110,000 hours of technology testing has been completed on more than 60 membrane, solvent, and sorbent technologies and their associated systems at the NCCC test site in Wilsonville, Alabama. The evaluation of advanced technologies, both domestic and international, helps to identify and resolve environmental, health and safety, operational, component, and system development issues, as well as to achieve scale-up and process enhancements in collaboration with the technology developers.

The primary project goal is to gain insight into the nature, formation, occurrence, and physical properties of methane hydrate-bearing sediments for methane hydrate resource appraisal through the planning and execution of drilling, coring, logging, testing, and analytical activities to assess the geologic occurrence, regional context, and characteristics of marine methane hydrate deposits in the Gulf of Mexico and/or other areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Previous drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has verified the presence of methane hydrate filled sand reservoirs and have shown that such reservoirs can be identified by seismic analysis. However, conventional and pressurized cores of these reservoirs have not been collected, a number of critical in-situ measurements have not been recorded, and pressure perturbation experiments have not been performed. The project team will attempt to address these issues by planning and executing state-of-the-art deepwater methane hydrate drilling programs targeting methane hydrate reservoirs on the U.S. continental margin. For the research field programs (in Phase 2 and Phase 5), initial scientific analysis will begin onboard the drillship. Following the field programs, careful, detailed evaluation of collected core and data will be continued by research groups within the project team as well as through collaborating researchers across the world. A full detailed account of shipboard drilling and sampling activities, follow-on core / data analyses, and full scientific results will be developed and made publicly available.

The University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center (UNDEERC) will conduct complementary research and development (R&D) efforts under a Cooperative Agreement to advance and innovate science and energy technologies. Work will be performed in five topical areas of R&D: carbon storage; carbon capture; oil and gas; strategic studies; and support of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s (FECM) evolving mission. This program supports one of the three strategic goals to advance foundational science, innovate energy technologies, and inform data-driven policies that enhance U.S. economic growth and job creation, energy security, and environmental quality. The agreement builds on the proven approach and accomplishments of previous agreements between EERC and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) that have led to commercial demonstration and deployment of advanced technologies through jointly sponsored research on topics that would not be adequately addressed by the private sector alone.

This Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) project will establish a site to develop, test, and improve technologies and techniques for the creation of enhanced geothermal systems. In the first phase of the project, the University of Utah will develop a conceptual geologic model of the site and develop plans to carry out the full scope of the project. During the second phase of the project, permitting will be addressed and early field work will begin. The final phase of the project is dedicated to fully developing the field site, including the drilling and stimulation of multiple wells with the intent of creating a functioning geothermal system.

Management of fluid pressures is expected to be a key issue in the implementation of full-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage operations. Injection of CO₂ into the storage reservoir causes fluid pressures to rise in the reservoir, potentially resulting in high rock stresses that can cause reactivation of faults or fracturing of caprock, thus losing its ability to contain the CO₂. At some sites, extraction of saline groundwater from the storage reservoir may be required to maintain safe working pressures when CO₂ is injected into the subsurface and to enhance CO₂ storage capacity and injectivity. The brine from the formation will likely be produced in significant quantities and contain high concentrations of total dissolved solids. With treatment, this water could be desalinated and put to beneficial use at a power station for cooling or for other uses, thus reducing the risk associated with brine re-injection/disposal. The overall objective of this Brine Extraction Storage Test (BEST) project is to help develop cost-effective pressure control, plume management and produced water strategies that can be used to improve reservoir storage efficiency and capacity, and demonstrate safe, reliable containment of CO₂ in deep geologic formations with CO₂ permanence of 99% or better. In addition, operational experience gained from implementing the field demonstration at a power plant site will provide realistic and practical learnings that can be incorporated into future updates of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) best practice manuals related to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). In Phase I, the Recipient identified a preferred field site location, conducted life-cycle analyses for produced water extraction, treatment, transportation and residual waste disposal. Monitoring and injection/production strategies were developed for measuring and controlling the subsurface reservoir pressure and injection plume, and a series of work plans for field demonstrations of pressure management and treatment of extracted brines were prepared.

The objectives of this project and for this facility are to demonstrate the operability of the supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) power cycle, verify the performance of components (turbomachinery, recuperators, and compressors, etc.), show the potential for producing a lower cost of electricity in relevant applications, and demonstrate the potential and pathway for a thermodynamic cycle efficiency greater than 50 percent. Ultimately, this project will demonstrate at least a 700°C turbine inlet temperature or higher design point, and produce a recompression closed Brayton cycle (RCBC) configuration that can be used to demonstrate and evaluate system and component design and performance capabilities (including turbomachinery and recuperators in steady state, transient, load following, and limited endurance operation). The facility will also be capable of being reconfigured to accommodate potential future testing of system/cycle upgrades, new cycle configurations, and new or upgraded components in addition to next-generation turbomachinery and heat exchanger technology. The project team is led by Gas Technology Institute (GTI) with two prime subrecipients (Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and General Electric Global Research) plus the University of Wisconsin and Natural Resources Canada’s CanmetEnergy. They will design, construct, commission, and operate a 10-MWe sCO₂ pilot plant test facility located at SwRI’s San Antonio, Texas campus.

The overall goal of this project is to advance a membrane-based, post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture process to a large pilot stage. Membrane Technology and Research (MTR) will construct and operate a large pilot system of the MTR membrane post-combustion CO₂ capture technology. MTR will build this system at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center (WITC) at Basin Electric’s 422-megawatt (MW) Dry Fork Station located in Gillette, Wyoming. This station processes sub-bituminous coal from the Western Fuels’ Dry Fork Mine. Successful operation of the MTR large pilot membrane system will result in capturing 70% of the CO₂ from a 10-MWe equivalent slipstream, representing capture of approximately 150 metric tons of CO₂ per day at the station.

MTR subcontractor Sargent & Lundy (S&L) will perform the detailed design; Trimeric Corporation (another MTR subcontractor) will perform detailed design of CO₂ compression and purification, as well as conduct a techno-economic analysis; and Graycor (another MTR subcontractor) will provide construction services.

The overall project has five budget periods (BPs): Phase I/BP1—Feasibility (completed in 2019); Phase II/BP2—Front-End Engineering Design (FEED; completed in 2021); Phase III/BP3—Detailed Design and Construction (Initiated in 2021); Phase III/BP4—Operation; and Phase III/BP5—Decommissioning.

Researchers at the University of Illinois, in partnership with the Linde Group, BASF Corporation, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., and Affiliated Construction Services, Inc., are designing an amine-based carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture pilot-scale (10 megawatt-electric [MWe]) system at an existing coal-fired power plant. The system is based on the Linde-BASF advanced CO₂ capture process incorporating BASF’s novel solvent with an advanced stripper inter-stage heater design to optimize heat recovery. In a previous U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project, the Linde-BASF CO₂ capture technology showed the potential to be cost-effective and energy-efficient using actual flue gas during pilot-scale (1.5 MWe) testing at the National Carbon Capture Center. The aqueous amine-based solvent was optimized to exhibit long-term stability and a 20 percent reduction in regeneration energy requirements when compared to commercially available solvents; additional improvements in process design further reduce the cost of CO₂ capture.

Projects to design, construct, and operate large-scale pilots of transformational coal technologies are being conducted in three phases, with a down-select between phases. In Phase I of this project, the team completed preliminary design and engineering analyses for a 10 MWe capture facility installed at three potential host sites and selected the City, Water, Light and Power’s (CWLP) Dallman Power Plant as the host site based on the studies. The project team also completed an Environmental Information Volume (EIV) for the selected site, updated preliminary cost and schedule estimates, secured cost-share commitments for Phase II, and developed a plan for securing cost-share commitments for Phase III. The project was selected for Phase II (Design), in which the team will complete a front-end engineering design (FEED) study, including a detailed cost and schedule estimate for Phase III for the installation of the 10 MWe pilot at CWLP, complete the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and any required permitting processes at CWLP, secure Phase III (construction/operation) cost share funding, and complete an updated techno-economic analysis of the technology based on the most recent system design and cost information.

The Phase III objectives are to complete detailed engineering, procurement of equipment and modules, and build and operate a 10 MWe large pilot of the Linde/BASF post-combustion carbon capture technology at the CWLP Dallman Power Plant in Springfield, Illinois. The Phase III scope of work includes: (1) obtaining construction and operating permits for all regulated activities occurring during Phase III; (2) finalizing functional specifications and completing detailed engineering; (3) procuring equipment and materials for inside and outside the boundary limits (ISBL and OSBL); (4) constructing and installing the large pilot; (5) commissioning of the large pilot plant followed by parametric and steady-state operating test campaigns; (6) analyzing test campaign results; and (7) updating the techno-economic analysis (TEA) based on the design and cost information developed during the Phase III test campaign.

The approach used for design, construction, and commissioning is an important feature of the technology and will help enable the commercialization process. The regional economic benefit and the ability to repurpose some existing workforce at CWLP will also demonstrate how carbon capture can aid regional economies when it is deployed. If the technology performs as planned, there is a desire to have the capture plant remain in place and be utilized for future testing of capture and utilization technologies.

This project will investigate the development and design that will generate heat at a localized spot in the production tubing string with no surface connections or independent electrical power supply. Heat is generated from the relative motion between a set of magnets and magnetically conductive surface. The relative motion produces eddy currents that heat the conductor, and the energy input to the unit is provided by the vertical travel of the sucker rod pump. One of the major operational costs associated with production of mature oil wells is the elimination of wax and paraffin buildup in the production tubing. The accumulation of paraffinic compounds in cold spots in the tubing creates high pressures and flow restrictions that, at the very least, contribute to accelerated pump wear, and at worst, constrict the flow altogether.

This project will develop an industry/academic/governmental partnership that will assemble the knowledge base required to support use of the geologic environments beneath the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) for secure, long-term, large-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage and enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. The knowledge base created by the Offshore Carbon Storage Partnership will facilitate subsequent development of technology-focused permitting processes needed by industry and regulators. This project will provide an offshore CO₂ resource characterization for the western portion of the GOM through the assessment and integration of geologic and engineering information. The partnership will focus on identifying and addressing knowledge gaps, regulatory issues, infrastructure requirements, and technical challenges associated with offshore CO₂ storage. This project will work to improve the confidence in containment of CO₂ in the subsea offshore environment in storage reservoirs over both short and long timeframes.

SRI International, in partnership with OLI Systems, Inc., Trimeric Corporation, the National Carbon Capture Center, and Baker Hughes, will test their advanced mixed-salt post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) absorption technology at engineering scale (0.5 MWe) to address concerns related to scale-up and integration of the technology in fossil fuel-based power plants. The process uses a non-degradable solvent that combines readily-available, inexpensive potassium and ammonium salt solutions, operates without solvent chilling, and employs a novel flow configuration that has been optimized to improve absorption kinetics, minimize ammonia emissions, and reduce water use compared to state-of-the-art ammonia-based and amine technologies. The objectives of the research project are to: 1) perform integrated mixed-salt process (MSP) testing at engineering scale for long-term periods under dynamic and continuous steady-state conditions with a real flue gas stream to address concerns relating to scale-up and integration of the technology to coal-based power plants; 2) operate the MSP with advanced heat integration to demonstrate advantages in process efficiencies; 3) study the solvent and water management strategies; and 4) collect critically important data for a detailed techno-economic analysis.

In this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project, TDA Research, Inc. (TDA), in collaboration with Membrane Technology & Research, Inc., is developing a new class of sorbents to remove CO₂ selectively and with high capacity from flue gases generated from pulverized-coal combustion power plants. In Phase I, TDA prepared various sorbent formulations and screened them to determine their capacity to adsorb CO₂ under representative conditions. Based on the performance results, a preliminary design of the CO₂ capture system was completed as well as cost and size estimates. The team also completed an engineering assessment to compare the system to alternative processes. In Phase II, TDA will continue to optimize the sorbent to enhance its CO₂ capacity and further improve its resistance to flue gas impurities such as moisture, SOX and NOX. TDA will also scale-up the sorbent production and will work with MTR to prepare polymer films, which will be formed into spiral wound and planar modules. The team will assess the impact of critical process parameters at bench scale and carry out a minimum of 20,000 adsorption/desorption cycles. Finally, TDA will perform process simulation work and evaluate the techno-economic viability of the new CO₂ capture technology as a retrofit option for existing pulverized coal power plants.

General Electric will evaluate a highly efficient heat engine for natural gas pipeline compression. The project is centered on the conceptual design of a novel, hermetically sealed oil-free super-critical carbon dioxide (SCO₂) bottoming cycle for a natural gas combustion turbine used for pipeline compression. The effort enables heat engine cycle efficiencies >50% by demonstrating the feasibility of a two-machine oil-free drivetrain consisting of a high-speed SCO₂ turbo-compressor with a direct drive starter-generator aerodynamically coupled to a 60hz 10MW SCO₂ turbo-generator. The primary deliverable of this project is the conceptual design of a 10MW SCO₂ bottoming cycle and associated turbomachinery. The conceptual design includes an integrated approach between different disciplines such as thermodynamic cycles, aero design, rotor dynamics, bearing design, and electric machine sizing. One project outcome will be the definition of a suitable SCO₂ bottoming cycle for highly-efficient heat engines that is deployable into remote locations with minimal to no operation oversight. Another outcome is the development of a process gas lubricated bearing system for MW-class turbomachinery for implementation in SCO₂.

This project is using well-established existing technology to improve the standard methods of in-situ stress measurements by including thermally induced borehole breakout technology for measuring the most compressive principal in-situ stress. By running multiple heating tests in a borehole and correlating different applied temperatures (thermal stress) to breakout measurements, the understanding of local variability at the wellbore can be improved while reducing uncertainty.

The goal of the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) project is to advance associated geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Williston Basin by establishing the Williston Basin Associated CO2 Storage Field Laboratory. This goal will be accomplished through efforts conducted in collaboration with the project partner and current host site operator, SOG Resources, in both field and traditional laboratory settings. The field-based portion of the project will take place in an oil field in the Williston Basin and will involve the injection of CO2 into a stacked storage complex that includes a residual oil zone (ROZ) and a conventional reservoir by the operator. Gas measurements and/or log/core acquisition will be done in the field by the operator, who will provide EERC with core and fluid samples (as well as data and site access) to conduct laboratory efforts at EERC. The project will: (1) generate field-based data on CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) associated storage in stacked reservoirs; (2) characterize ROZ for associated storage; and (3) evaluate a monitoring, verification, and accounting technique for its applicability to associated storage in stacked complexes.

TDA Research is partnering with University of Alberta, University of California Irvine, and the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, to develop a transformational sorbent for post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture capable of capturing more than 90% of the CO₂ emissions from a coal-fired power plant and recovering CO₂ at 95% purity with a cost of electricity 30% lower than an amine-based system. TDA's system uses a novel, stable, high-capacity CO₂ sorbent in a vacuum/concentration swing adsorption (VCSA) process that uses a single-stage vacuum pump with low auxiliary load. The sorbent regeneration uses a combination of two steps: 1) vacuum to recover the CO₂, and 2) purge using boiler air intake, subsequently feeding the CO₂-laden air to the boiler.

The primary purpose of this project is to establish a field laboratory to assess the technical and economic viability of enhanced oil recovery and associated carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage in the greenfield (“fairway”) residual oil zones (ROZs) of the Powder River Basin. This is being accomplished through four objectives: 1) Characterizing the ROZ fairway resource adjacent to the Salt Creek Oil Field, Powder River Basin; 2) undertaking detailed review of mechanisms influencing the efficiency and permanence of ROZ-associated CO₂ storage; 3) examining alternative CO₂ injection and storage strategies for optimizing both oil recovery and CO₂ storage 4) establishing the commercial viability of enhanced oil recovery and associated CO₂ storage for the ROZ fairway at Salt Creek.

The project will develop a transformational molecular layer deposition (MLD) tailor-made, size-sieving sorbent/pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process (MLD-T-S/PSA) that can be installed in new or retrofitted into pulverized coal (PC) power plants for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture. The work will be performed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, located in Troy, New York. The project technical activities include mathematical modeling, development of MLD tailor-made sorbents, MLD sorbent design, construction of an MLD-T-S/PSA system, and techno-economic analysis. The two sub-recipients in this project are University of South Carolina (USC) and Gas Technology Institute (GTI). USC will conduct sorbent performance testing, PSA process optimization, and system design and construction. GTI will evaluate the influence of impurities on sorbent performance and construct a testing skid at USC and transport it to the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama for field testing.

MAAT energy has demonstrated a non-thermal atmospheric microwave plasma (AMP) reformer that efficiently reuses CO2 for the generation of low-carbon intensity jet fuel. While other modes of transportation may be electrified, aviation depends on safe, high energy density jet fuels. In Phase IIA, the main goals of the program were exceeded: greater than 90% methane conversion (achieved ~99%) and greater than 60% electrical efficient (achieved 60%) with systems that are commercial scale. The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) was raised to 5 using a 100 kW system operating at 915 MHz. The experimental results have been used to benchmark the models. In Phase IIA, AMP technology redesigned and scaled up to 50 kW, and tested for short periods of time, limited by thermal management. A pilot-scale unit, operating at 40 kW, has been tested in the field at a site of our industrial collaborator. In Phase IIC, in collaboration with an industrial partner, MAAT Energy intend to upgrade the pilot-scale system with the goal of reaching TRL 6 by the end of the program with the improved reactor design. The system will operate at 100 kW and 915 MHz for long duration (weeks). This unit will be pre-commercial scale; increased productivity will be achieved through multiplexing 100 kW units. Limitations from Phase IIA will be addressed to further optimize the AMP operation, including improved thermal management for long duration and high-power (100 kW) testing by using means to drive nonthermal plasmas, such as seeding to control the plasma temperature, and by providing thermal integration to recuperate the heat from the hot CO-rich exhaust to increase electrical efficiency.

The overall objective of this project is to increase recovery and sustain production from existing Bakken wells by implementing a novel Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology that has the potential to resolve some of the pivotal issues associated with gas containment in the Bakken complex. More specifically, this project seeks to optimize the performance of foam-assisted hydrocarbon gas injection in Middle Bakken/Three Forks by improving the current scientific understanding of the fundamental mechanisms involved in this process and demonstrating its potential through a field pilot test.

The overarching goals of the project are to 1) implement controllable completions through a rigorously monitored field test in a reservoir that has undergone primary and secondary recovery but has yet to pursue tertiary recovery, 2) apply advanced data analytics and machine learning to evaluate the test performance in tandem with a semiautonomous active control system, and 3) assess various business case scenarios to accelerate the development and application of this system for commercial enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

The project team will achieve these goals through the following project activities: 1) identify a CO2-EOR pilot test well pattern in the Cedar Hills South Field; 2) install a set of up to ten interval control valves (ICVs) into the CO2 injection well within the identified test pattern; 3) execute a tracer study using ICV interval-specific tracers to quantify connectivity within the reservoir and inform the subsequent operational designs; 4) operate the ICVs during the project period of performance and quantitatively show that the deployment of the ICVs can improve conformance, increase CO2 sweep efficiency, and improve incremental production; 5) collect downhole measurements which, when combined with analytical and numerical simulation models, can provide the empirical data necessary for developing a machine learning approach to a semiautonomous control system; 6) collect baseline and repeat three-dimensional (3D) seismic surveys of the test pattern to characterize the reservoir and track subsurface fluid migration in response to CO2 injection and ICV system operation; and 7) evaluate various business case scenarios using simulation models to quantify key EOR performance metrics and the effect of ICVs on these metrics.

Battelle Memorial Institute combined two Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs)—the Midwest RCSP led by Battelle and the Midwest Geologic Sequestration Consortium led by the Illinois State Geological Survey— to form the Midwest Regional Carbon Initiative (MRCI) comprising midwestern and northeastern states. The initiative is supporting key activities, including: (1) expanding regional stress/risk assessment to an additional level of detail in new areas; (2) expanding the acquisition of legacy seismic/well data from small oil/gas producers; (3) evaluating conceptual project definition for Atlantic offshore areas and east coast sources; (4) expanding industrial collaboration efforts to new sites/partners and collecting data from brine injection wells for use in storage assessment; (5) incorporating energy transition issues (e.g., hydrogen, direct air capture, bio-enhanced carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), cybersecurity, environmental justice, and job creation/workforce development) into infrastructure assessments; and (6) expanding outreach efforts to regional intergovernmental groups and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Lab and field studies show that over time the injection of CO₂ into an oil reservoir will selectively mobilize lower-molecular-weight hydrocarbons, leaving higher-molecular-weight (HMW) hydrocarbons behind. The goal of the project is to determine the effect of injecting blended CO₂ and rich gas into an active CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (EOR) field to improve production performance.

This project aims to inject a blend of rich hydrocarbon gas and CO₂ into an oil reservoir to reduce molecular weight selectivity, lower minimum miscibility pressure and the viscosity of the oil and improve gas solubility. This would result in an overall improvement in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) performance. The EOR performance will be tested by conducting a field validation test of blended CO₂–rich gas injection and tracking changes to molecular weight selectivity and oil viscosity before, during, and after the test injection. The success criteria are a measured increase in High Molecular Weight (HMW) hydrocarbons produced from the reservoir and increased oil production during the field validation test period.

The location of the injection test will be in the Bell Creek oil field in Montana. Laboratory and simulation experiments, based on the composition of available rich gas supply, will be used to determine the quantity and blend(s) of rich gas components that will be used in the field validation test. An injection scheme will be designed incorporating preexisting wellbores installed in the field for the currently operated CO₂ EOR flood. A field validation test will be conducted to inject blended CO₂ and rich gas into a single injection well and produce oil from four nearby wells.

The overall objective of the project is to significantly improve the reliability and efficiency of existing coal-fired power plants under flexible operating conditions by deploying a technology to modify the surface chemistry of creep-strength-enhanced steel tubing to substantially improve its steam-side oxidation resistance at a cost and scale that enables its ready acceptance for use by the power generation industry. This will be pursued through efforts targeted at two supporting objectives: (1) demonstration of the use of an existing chromizing technology to process power-boiler-component lengths of appropriately sized creep-strength-enhanced Fe-9Cr-1Mo (Grade 91) steel tubing to assure improved steam-side scaling resistance and the retention of mechanical properties in manner that minimizes cost, and (2) insertion of test articles of the Cr-surface-enriched Grade 91 tubing into a component(s) of an operating coal-fired power plant and evaluation of their performance following a suitable period of elevated-temperature service.

The research concept involves integration of multiple data types to evaluate fields in the study area that have the lowest technical and environmental risk and optimal setting for Enhance Oil Recovery (EOR). Laboratory experiments will be used to optimize a CO2 flood composition specific to Hydrothermally Altered Dolomite (HTD) rock properties, and subsequently design and simulate injection scenarios that offer wettability alteration, foaming, and reduced surface tension. This research is expected to improve oil recovery from matrix porosity and mitigate the impact of fracture zones. The optimized design will be implemented and tested in a Trenton/Black River field. The results will provide strategies to improve oil recovery in complex carbonate formations in the Michigan Basin as well as in other carbonate plays. The key risks include: data vintages; data availability; assessment of complex HTD systems, including thief zones and conformance issues; wellbore integrity of old wells; and cost and sourcing of CO2 for field tests. These risks will be mitigated through the developed methodologies based in laboratory experimentation, rock/fluid characterization, and machine learning tasks, and by field test planning.

The Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota leads the PCOR Partnership Initiative, with support from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Wyoming, and over 200 cumulative industrial, organizational, and governmental partners, in fostering the development of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in the northern Great Plains states, adjacent Canadian provinces, and Alaska. Areas included in this region are dominated by fossil energy production and coincide with abundant opportunities for geologic storage in sedimentary basins. The PCOR Partnership is catalyzing CCUS projects in its region by 1) strengthening the technical foundation for geologic CO₂ storage and enhanced oil recovery; 2) advancing capture technology; 3) improving application of monitoring technologies to commercial CCUS projects in the region; 4) promoting integration between capture, transportation, use, and storage industries; 5) facilitating regulatory frameworks; and 6) providing scientific support to policy makers.

The main objective of this project is to design, develop, additively manufacture, test, and validate three types (temperature, pressure, and blade tip timing/clearance) of optical sensor modules for in situ monitoring of the critical operation parameters in coal-fueled steam turbines. These sensor modules will be embedded into the Smart Ring (recently invented and patented by GE) and installed circumferentially and flush into the inner wall of the turbine casing for condition-based monitoring, control and maintenance scheduling. The optical sensor modules will be optimally designed based on simulations, and additively manufactured using the novel Integrated Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing (IASM) method developed at Clemson University. The sensor-embedded Smart Ring will be tested and validated under laboratory-simulated conditions as well as demonstrated in industrial-scale turbine testing rigs at GE’s turbine testing facilities.

The SECARB-USA Initiative is identifying and addressing regional onshore storage and transport challenges facing commercial deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies. SECARB-USA encompasses Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and portions of Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia. The Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) is coordinating the capabilities of a diverse project team to accelerate CCUS deployment by achieving four primary research objectives: 1) addressing key technical challenges; 2) facilitating data collection, sharing and analysis; 3) assessing transportation and distribution infrastructure; and 4) promoting regional technology transfer and dissemination of knowledge.

The primary objective of this project is to assess and evaluate optimum strategies to develop this structurally complex, but highly prospective, emerging unconventional Paradox oil play, in particular the Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation’s Cane Creek shale and adjacent clastic zones. A key component of this project is to fully characterize, quantify, and interpret the geological, structural, and geomechanical settings of the Paradox oil play to elucidate the relative factors that promote effective production. This strategy will include detailed facies analysis of core material, core-to-log petrophysical integration, advanced fracture analysis, innovative 3D seismic interpretation, and detailed basin modeling. The results of these analyses will inform a Development Strategy Plan that will include tailored drilling designs and/or stimulation strategies focused to maximize production from this play and other similar resources. In addition, the new strategic drilling and/or tactical stimulation approach(es) will be tested in at least one horizontal well in the Paradox Basin as part of this project.

This field-based research project will establish a Field Laboratory in the Powder River Basin (PRB) focusing on well completions and fracture stimulations in several tight oil formations. The Field Laboratory will be used to characterize and overcome the technical challenges of developing the Mowry Shale and optimize field development of the Turner and Niobrara formations. To meet these objectives, The Project Team has partnered with Oxy, a leading operator in the PRB.

The objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate at the lab-scale the additively manufactured graded composite transition joints (AM-GCTJ) for dissimilar metal weldments (DMW) in next generation advanced ultra-supercritical (A-USC) coal-fired power plants, that can significantly improve the microstructural stability, creep and thermal-mechanical fatigue resistance, as compared with their conventional counterparts.

The objective of this project is to evaluate the behavior of high-temperature materials to qualify lower-cost alloys for advanced ultra-supercritical (A-USC) power plants with steam conditions of 760 °C and 345 bar (1400 °F and 5000 psig), and ensure that any limitations of current materials are overcome. This project is particularly focused on the ASME code case qualification for the CF8C-Plus alloy.

The objective of this project is to evaluate advanced nickel (Ni)-based alloys to support the manufacturing and use of components under advanced ultra-supercritical (A-USC) steam conditions, which range up to 760 °C (1400 °F) and 35 MPa (5000 psig). In particular, this project focuses on evaluating materials from near-to-full-scale components, such as Haynes 282 large rotor forging, half-valve body casting, and steam turbine nozzle carrier casting, to provide insights into potential manufacturability issues related to large-scale components made from Ni-based alloys and engineering data and support for actual A-USC plant design. In addition, this project contains substantial efforts in weld characterization and long-term creep testing of Ni-based alloy weldment, which should provide useful data for filler metal selection and future ASME code qualification efforts for cast Haynes 282 weldment.

The University of Texas at Austin will develop technologies to safeguard amine-based carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture processes from solvent loss by oxidation. The project team will evaluate strategies to minimize amine oxidation in advanced 2nd- and 3rd-generation solvents caused by two of the most significant impurities: oxygen and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). These effective technologies will reduce the cost and environmental risk of solvent-based carbon capture systems by addressing the effects of flue gas impurities on solvent loss.

The overarching goal of this project is to develop a significantly process-intensified technology for methane dehydrogenation to aromatic (i.e., benzene) (MDA) in highly compacted microchannel protonic ceramic membrane reactors (HCM-PCMRs) by integrating multiple functions of single-atom catalysis, electrocatalysis, membrane catalysis, membrane separation, and advanced manufacturing.

The primary objective of this project is to develop and test a novel process for production of high-value carbon from the pyrolysis of uneconomical wellhead natural gas through graphitization of virgin pyrolysis carbon, or the precipitation of graphite from a carbon-saturated molten metal solution.

The carbons will be analyzed for their application to specific end-use markets. This will be followed by demonstrating a bench-scale (10 g of carbon per batch) carbon-upgrading reactor that can produce carbon at the specified market properties. In the final phase, the project will develop a laboratory-scale prototype capable of producing up to 1 kg/day of upgraded carbon.

The USGS Interagency Agreement (IA) involves laboratory research and international field studies in which DOE/NETL has a significant interest. Geological and geophysical support for these efforts is critical to their success, and the USGS is uniquely qualified to provide this support. This IA is currently divided into six separate tasks. The primary objective of several tasks is to evaluate the production potential of the known gas hydrate accumulations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. To serve energy resource goals of the Methane Hydrates R&D program on the U.S. Atlantic margin, the USGS will evaluate the need to conduct additional seismic evaluation of upper slope, gas hydrates in the northern Atlantic Margin and collaborate with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other partners on determining potential sites for a future gas hydrates research drilling program. In order to develop a better understanding of gas hydrates, the USGS is conducting laboratory research to measure the properties of sediments containing synthetic hydrates using a range of experimental methods. The USGS also actively supports cooperative projects between the U.S. and international partners.

In this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project, Susteon Inc. is teaming with Columbia University, Applied Catalysts, and Kiewit Engineering to advance the development of a “reactive” direct air capture (DAC) process that is capable of capturing and converting carbon dioxide (CO₂) from air into valuable products. In Phase I, the project team optimized existing dual function materials (DFMs), originally developed for treating flue gas from large point sources, to DAC applications. The DFM porous solid material, consisting of a novel combination of an adsorbent and a catalyst, has shown high CO₂ capacity under DAC conditions, and even greater capacity in the presence of atmospheric moisture, in laboratory experiments. The reactive DAC process involves selective chemisorption of CO₂, followed by sorbent regeneration through reversible desorption or, optionally, catalytic conversion of adsorbed CO₂ into methane (CH₄; also referred to as renewable natural gas [RNG]), using waste or renewable hydrogen (H₂). Both chemisorption and sorbent regeneration operate at the same temperature, eliminating the need for heating and cooling of the reactor beds, which are typically needed in most adsorption-based processes.

Phase II will focus on further development and bench-scale testing (1 kg/day) of DFMs for DAC at room temperature and subsequent catalytic conversion of adsorbed CO₂ into CH₄ using waste or renewable H₂ at about 300°C. DFM optimization will focus on the formulation and dispersion of DFM on the commercially available structured supports to achieve maximum DFM stability, CO₂ adsorption capacity, and rapid kinetics of CO₂ adsorption and methanation reactions. Testing will aim to determine DFM process conditions that yield the fastest CO₂ adsorption rate, highest CO₂ capacity, maximum CH₄ production, and lowest energy consumption for reactive DAC. The process model will be validated using lab- and bench-scale data and employed to develop a high-level process design for a 50-kg/day engineering-scale reactive DAC system, as well as techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis studies on a commercial-scale system.

Through the DOE-NARUC Natural Gas Partnership, the following types of educational activities will take place:

• Conducting Natural Gas Partnership dialogues at DOE or National Lab facilities, natural gas electric generation facilities, or advanced natural gas research or demonstration sites.
• Creating educational programming and resources to effectively share relevant information with state-level utility regulators through webinars, peer sharing calls, briefing papers, and related materials as appropriate.
• Supporting Commission participation in NARUC, DOE, national laboratory, or related natural gas forums, workshops, and research and development (R&D) collaboratives addressing key policy issues around natural gas use and advanced technologies, featuring researchers as participants where appropriate.

The objective of this project is to develop, test, and validate a general drag model for multiphase flows in assemblies of non-spherical particles by a physics-informed deep machine learning approach using an artificial neural network (ANN). Once implemented in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, the model aims to accurately predict a particle’s drag coefficient and flow fields in the simulation of gas-particle flows, with a wide range of parameters including Reynolds number, Stokes number, solid volume fractions, particle densities, particle orientations, and particle aspect ratios. The project will involve the following research and development activities: 1) data collection and generation of drag coefficients for non-spherical particles; 2) ANN-based drag model development through deep learning neural networks (DNN), algorithm identification and evaluation, and model tests using different data sets; 3) integration of the best DNN model into an open source CFD software, MFiX-DEM; and 4) validation of selected multiphase flows using the new drag model.

In this Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, Helios-NRG and its partners, the University of Buffalo and TechOpp Consulting, will work to develop CO₂-philic block copolymers with intrinsic microporosity (BCPIMs) for post-combustion CO₂ capture. The BCPIMs consisting of rubbery polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polymerizable metal-organic frameworks (polyMOFs) will be designed, synthesized, and characterized for carbon capture and have superior CO₂/N₂ separation properties. In Phase I, the team’s preliminary results found that the optimized materials achieved CO₂ permeability of at least 2,000 Barrer and CO₂/N₂ selectivity of at least 40 and also showed good stability in the presence of water vapor, SOx, and NOx. Initial techno-economic analysis (TEA) work confirmed the potential of the advanced membranes to achieve the project objective of $30/ton CO₂ or lower. Phase II efforts will focus on optimizing and scaling up of the fabrication of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes for CO₂/N₂ separation. These membranes will be tested for long-term membrane resistance to contaminants while using real flue gas. This will be followed by bench-scale module fabrication and performance measurements over a range of operating conditions.

Researchers will develop novel, durable, low cost, ceramic-based super high-temperature thermocouples (up to 2000 °C) for use in high-temperature (750–1800 °C) and 1000 PSI and above coal-based energy systems under high corrosion and erosion conditions. The materials, Zirconium diboride (ZrB₂) and samarium hexaboride (SmB₆) thermoelectric refractory materials will be employed as n- and p-type thermocouple legs. The materials will be compacted into isotropic thermoelectric nanocomposites as thermocouple legs with excellent Seebeck coefficient. The legs will be fabricated into ceramic-based thermocouples with p-n junctions. The thermocouples will also have good oxidization and sulfidization resistance, no protective outer layer, and cost less than acoustic and optical devices. Thermocouple performance will be evaluated in oxygen, carbon oxide, and sulfide atmospheres at high pressure and temperature. In addition, the effects of heat flow, flow rate, and mass flux found in coal power generation on the performance of the thermocouples will be investigated. Physical behaviors and long-term stability will be evaluated.

The objective of this project is to develop a revolutionary gas-based fiber-optic temperature sensor technology with the required accuracy and long-term stability for temperature control and condition monitoring of the next generation of coal-fired power systems.

The temperature sensor technology is based on a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity filled with a gas (e.g., air) the pressure of which can be changed. An FP cavity is formed by a silica tube that is filled with air and sandwiched between a side-hole fiber and a capping fiber. The holey fiber has air channels in its cladding running along the length of the fiber through which the air pressure in the FP cavity can be tuned. The light coming from the holey fiber is partially reflected at the two fiber/tube interfaces and coupled back into the holey fiber. The system then measures the reflection spectrum which contains the interference fringes of the FP cavity by a white-light source, a fiber-optic coupler, and a spectrometer.

This project will develop an inexpensive wireless, high-temperature sensor for real-time monitoring of the temperature and corrosion of metal components that are commonly used in coal-fired boilers. This work will focus on the fabrication and testing of harsh-environment, chipless radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensors that will function between 25 °C and 1300 °C in high steam and/or combustion gas environments. Sensor arrays will also be evaluated where each RFID sensor will be designed with a specified frequency band to spatially differentiate the testing site on the metal specimen. Specifically, this project will: (1) design passive wireless RFID patch and interrogator antennas for high-temperature sensing of temperature and corrosion/crack propagation at temperatures up to 1300 °C; (2) develop materials and methods to fabricate a microstrip patch antenna sensor composed of a robust conductive electroceramic pattern and interlayer ceramic coating, and then incorporate this sensor into “peel-and-stick” preforms that will efficiently transfer and bond to the metal specimens of interest; (3) investigate the wireless RFID sensor response in accelerated high-temperature and high steam environments, and correlate corrosion and cracking mechanisms (and kinetics) with the response of the sensors; (4) investigate the wireless signal acquisition and processing of data transferred in various configurations by multiple sensors within the same environment and through-wall transmission of the signal by a singular RFID sensor; and (5) investigate the passive wireless sensor system developed (and method of transferring the sensor system) for monitoring the temperature and health of metal components in service within a coal-fired power plant.

The project plans to develop a more accurate artificial neural network (ANN)-based method for modeling the momentum exchange in fluid-solid multiphase mixtures to significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of multiphase numerical codes and, in particular, of MFiX, by developing and providing a general and accurate method for determining the drag coefficients of assemblies of non-spherical particles for wide ranges of Reynolds numbers, Stokes numbers, and fluid-solid properties and characteristics. The research team will achieve this goal by conducting numerical computations with a validated in-house CFD code and using artificial intelligence methods to develop an ANN that will be implemented in TensorFlow and linked with the MFiX code.

This project aims to develop a new wireless high-temperature sensor network for real-time continuous boiler condition monitoring in harsh environments. The wireless high-temperature sensor network consists of wireless radio frequency (RF) high-temperature sensors with integrated attached antennas for wireless internet-based continuous remote monitoring. Each of the new RF high-temperature sensors is based on a high quality factor RF filter fabricated on 4H silicon carbide semiconductor material capable of measuring high temperatures over 1,800 °C. The integrated antennas are broadband bow-tie RF antennas that can provide efficient signal transmission and reception. The wireless sensor network enables real-time and continuous monitoring of boiler conditions to achieve smart boiler system management.

Researchers will develop robust heat flux sensor elements, based on the wire-wound Schmidt Boelter gauge architecture and the transverse Seebeck effect, capable of operating in the challenging high-temperature, corrosive environments within the boilers of coal-fired power plants. The heat-flux sensors will utilize thermoelectric effects to directly transduce the heat-flux input to analog electrical voltage signals and will be constructed from dedicated materials that can withstand oxidative atmospheres at temperatures from 700 to 1200°C and maintain adequate performance under these conditions for prolonged periods. Rigorous testing and calibration protocols in furnaces and medium-scale fire research facilities will be employed to understand the significance and reliability of the output signal under a range of dynamic environmental conditions. These conditions will include a range of heat-flux values, temperatures, surface emissivity, cooling rates, flow rates, and concentrations of carbon particulates.

This project aims to develop a liquid phase photocatalytic process for direct conversion of methane into methanol so, when applied to flared gas at a well site, the process can generate methanol using a direct photocatalytic route. The goal will be accomplished by completing several research objectives that include:

1. Develop a bifunctional catalyst using a semiconductor photocatalyst architecture to facilitate methane activation to directly convert methane into methanol.
2. Develop a scalable reactor design to maximize mass transfer and methanol selectivity using an optimized photocatalyst.
3. Develop a conceptual process design for a modular system for flare gas utilization.
4. Conduct comprehensive techno-economic and commercial market assessments to position the technology for commercialization.

Initially, the project intends to develop and optimize the semiconductor catalyst for the effective conversion of photons into hydroxyl (•OH) radicals which support methane activation and a co-catalyst that selectively and with high yield converts the methyl radicals generated from methane activation into methanol and integrate these into a single bifunctional catalyst. If that is successful, the project will shift to process development focusing on testing to identify optimal operating conditions, completing long-term testing at realistic commercial conditions, testing with simulated natural gas compositions and intermittent operation involving on/off and varying flow conditions.

This CarbonSAFE Phase III effort aims to build upon the progress of previous phases and advance towards the full commercial deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB). Previous Wyoming CarbonSAFE project phases have demonstrated the feasibility of injecting commercial volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) at the proposed storage complex on the property of Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s (BEPC) Dry Fork Station (DFS). DFS is coal-based electric generation power plant that has been proposed as the project’s CO₂ source. Collocated at DFS is the Wyoming Integrated Test Center, a research facility dedicated to CCUS advancement.

The intent of this project phase is to finalize surface and subsurface site characterization and certify the safety and security of eventual commercial CCUS operations at DFS. Applications for underground injection control (UIC) Class VI permits to construct will be submitted and project personnel will work with regulatory authorities until the appropriate permitting is acquired. The team will prepare an Environmental Information Volume (EIV) to inform the project’s final National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) class of action; this will result in a final NEPA document containing either a Record of Decision or Finding of No Significant Impact. This project will incorporate Membrane Technology and Research’s (MTR) DFS CO₂ front end engineering and design (FEED) and CO₂ capture analysis into the project’s commercialization assessments. This analysis will detail the operational performance of a commercial-scale CO₂ capture plant at DFS.

Washington University will advance the development of the two critical components of a modular Staged, Pressurized Oxy-Combustion (SPOC) power plant that are not commercially available: an integrated SPOC system and direct-contact cooler (DCC). WUSTL has designed and constructed a laboratory-scale prototype for each. These components have been developed with the support of multiple DOE projects and this project aims to further advance them to enable subsequent incorporation into a pilot plant. Objectives include integrating WUSTL’s existing 100 kW_th single-stage, pressurized oxy-combustor with a convective heat transfer boiler test section and the existing DCC to evaluate the operation and performance of the integrated system; demonstrating the integrated SPOC with two-stage combustors created by updating the existing single-stage 100 kW_th unit; computational fluid dynamics modeling and validation for the integrated pressurized combustor and boiler; and characterizing ash formation and deposition in the integrated SPOC system, and development and validation of ash behavior models for incorporating into the model of the pressurized combustor and boiler.

Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio, TX) propose to develop a detailed design for a supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂), coal syngas, or natural gas-fired, oxy-fuel turbine in the 150-300 MWe size range capable of 1,150^oC turbine inlet temperature at 300 bar and exhaust temperatures in the 725–775^oC range for use in a Direct-fired sCO₂ Power Plant System. This power plant will be capable of burning coal through gasification and cleanup of the synthesis gas (syngas). The turbine will require cooled turbine nozzles and blades as well as advanced thermal management systems to accommodate these high temperatures. The project team will execute test plans for the main components and test turbine blade materials in a high-temperature, high-pressure sCO₂ environment, test thermal barrier coatings in the same sCO₂ environment, validate heat transfer coefficients (HTC) high Reynold’s number cooling flow, and validate the cooled turbine blade thermal model based on the HTC studies and detailed design of the first stage turbine nozzle and blade. In addition, the team will complete a preliminary design of a combustor as it affects the overall design and layout of the turbine. This testing will advance the key risk components of the coal syngas combustion turbine from Technology Readiness Level 4 to 5.

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCE) (Danbury, CT) will advance high efficiency and low cost Reversible Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (RSOFC) system technology for hybrid operation of water electrolysis for hydrogen production as well as power generation using hydrogen. The technology improvements envisioned for the proposed project are focused in the areas of cell materials, stack design, power electronics, and process controls. Three areas of focus, to be pursued concurrently will be: improvements to the fundamental repeat unit materials in the RSOFC stack (cell, seal, interconnects, and coatings) to improve efficiency and reduce degradation; stack design improvements, particularly in the area of thermal management; and , development of power electronics controls strategies. The improvements will be demonstrated at the prototype system level, based on FCE’s Compact Solid Oxide Architecture (CSA) stack platform. The cell and stacks have demonstrated operation in both fuel cell and electrolysis modes, reversibly, and can operate on hydrocarbon fuels (e.g.: natural gas) or hydrogen with the same stack. FCE will work with Virginia Tech CPES to develop and deploy the advanced fuel cell power management technology to the demonstration system. Similar to the benefits offered by advanced battery management systems for multi-cell battery packs, the project is expected to achieve improved lifetime, improved operational flexibility, and improved economics to the overall system.

Gas Technology Institute will advance Ohio State University’s transformational membrane-based carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture technology through engineering-scale testing on actual coal-derived flue gas at the Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC). The amine-containing CO₂-selective membranes developed under U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded projects (FE0031731; FE0007632) consist of a thin selective inorganic layer embedded in a polymer support and exhibit high CO₂ permeance and very high selectivity of CO₂ over nitrogen (N₂). The superior performance is based on a facilitated transport mechanism, in which a reversible CO₂ reaction with fixed and mobile amine carriers enhances the CO₂/N₂ separation. The objectives of this project are to fabricate commercial-size membrane modules; design and install a 1-megawatt-electric (MWe) CO₂ capture system at ITC; conduct parametric testing with one- and two-stage membrane processes at varying CO₂ capture rates (60 to 90%); perform continuous testing at steady-state operation for a minimum of two months; and gather the data necessary for further process scale-up.

ION Clean Energy, Inc. will partner with Koch Modular Process Systems, Sargent & Lundy, Calpine Corporation, and Hellman & Associates, to advance their transformational post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture technology through engineering-scale (1 megawatt-electric [MWe]) testing on a slipstream of flue gas from Calpine’s Los Medanos Energy Center (LMEC), a commercially dispatched natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant. The project team will design, construct, and operate a CO₂ capture pilot system using ION’s water-lean, amine-based, third-generation ICE-31 solvent that will capture 10 tonnes of CO₂ per day and yield a CO₂ product flow with greater than 95% purity that is suitable for compression and dehydration into a CO₂ pipeline. The project will leverage ION’s process expertise gained through testing their second-generation, state-of-the-art solvent, ICE-21, at bench- and pilot-scale with coal-fired flue gases. The CO₂ capture process will be optimized to take full advantage of the benefits provided by ION’s ICE-31 solvent in combination with other process improvements, all of which are derived through a process-intensification design philosophy focused on NGCC flue gas. The benefits of this holistic approach include a smaller physical plant, reduced energy requirements, improved CO₂ product quality, less solvent degradation, lower emissions, lower water usage, less maintenance, and lower capital costs.

Two separate but geographically proximate sites – one at the One Earth Energy (OEE) ethanol plant near Gibson City, Illinois, and one at the Prairie State Generating Company (PSGC) coal-fired power plant near Marissa, Illinois – will be characterized for large-scale (50 million metric tons) storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured from those facilities. Characterization activities at both sites include 2D and 3D seismic surveys, stratigraphic test wells and geophysical logs, well hydraulic testing, CO₂ capture and transport feasibility assessment, and detailed injection modeling. The anticipated outcome of the project is the acquisition of permits to install injection wells at both sites under U.S. EPA’s Class VI Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulations.

Ames National Laboratory's objective is to develop, evaluate, and improve physics-based analysis tools for gas turbine analysis. Two types of analysis tools are of interest: (1) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools and (2) system-level tools for preliminary and conceptual design. The CFD analysis tools of interest are those that can account for the steady and unsteady three-dimensional flow and heat transfer on the hot-gas side of the turbine with and without film cooling; the conduction heat transfer through the turbine material, the thermal and environmental-barrier-coatings (TBC and EBC), and the superalloy via conduction heat transfer; and the flow and heat transfer in the internal cooling passages as a function of design and operating parameters. The systems-level tools of interest are those that are highly efficient computationally and yet contain key physics that are derived from steady/unsteady multidimensional CFD studies. These models are intended to be used in design at the system level (e.g., the entire blade or the entire stator-rotor stage), where it is not feasible to perform detailed CFD analysis.

TDA Research, Inc.—in partnership with Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Susteon, Clariant, and Dr. Ashok Rao —is developing a novel modular pre-combustion carbon capture technology platform that integrates a low-temperature water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction with a high-temperature physical adsorbent to eliminate carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from a coal or biomass-based poly-generation system (i.e., co-production of power and chemicals). The system will be optimized for use with a 21^st Century Power Plant poly-generation system that produces power and ammonia and is capable of highly flexible operation that can seamlessly transfer between production and ammonia storage modes. The specific goal of this project is to evaluate the techno-economic viability of the process through: (1) large-scale slipstream testing using actual coal or biomass-derived syngas in a fully equipped prototype unit at GTI’s Flex Fuel Facility in Des Plaines, Illinois, and (2) a high-fidelity process design and engineering analysis. Dr. Rao will assist in the process design and cycle optimization, Clariant will work with Susteon to supply the desulfurization sorbent for the field tests, and TDA will lead the sorbent production, prototype design and fabrication, and overall testing efforts. The combination of the low-temperature WGS and CO₂ removal processes improves overall efficiency by reducing the amount of water needed to shift the equilibrium-limited shift reaction. The system is also integrated with warm-gas desulfurization and trace contaminant removal technologies to protect catalysts used in chemical synthesis processes, while maintaining the water content of the gas to achieve high efficiency in the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) portion of the poly-generation process.

Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. will team with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Research Triangle Institute, and Worley Group, Inc. to conduct engineering-scale testing of a water-lean solvent for post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture. Through a previous U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded project (FWP-70924) under the Discovery of Carbon Capture Substance and Systems (DOCCSS) Initiative, a water-lean, single-amine solvent, N-(2-ethoxyethyl)-3-morpholinopropan-1-amine (EEMPA), was validated in laboratory-scale experiments and confirmed as a viable post-combustion capture solvent. This project will scale-up and test the performance of EEMPA for post-combustion capture of CO₂ from coal- and natural gas-derived flue gas over three phases (budget periods). In the first phase, the project team will develop a cost-effective method for synthesizing sufficient quantities of solvent to perform a 0.5-megawatt-electric (MWe)-scale test at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama, while evaluating process modifications needed to optimally operate the solvent process. In the second phase, the solvent will be manufactured and equipment modifications will be implemented at NCCC. In the final phase, test campaigns with both coal and natural gas flue gas sources will be conducted and a techno-economic analysis and an environmental health and safety risk assessment will be performed assuming full-scale deployment of the solvent and process at a power plant.

Parametric Solutions, Inc. (Jupiter, FL) (PSI) will design, build, and test the world’s first syngas-fueled supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) combustor for the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle. This cycle has the potential to produce electricity at a lower cost than conventional fossil generation with high flexibility, inherent carbon capture, and near-zero air emissions and water use. PSI will build and operate two commercial-scale 50 MW_th syngas combustors at up to 12-20 MW_th load, moving the combustor up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. Testing will be completed at the existing 50 MW_th NET Power facility, the world’s largest and only direct fired sCO2 power plant, to enable reuse of existing equipment, particularly the balance of plant, and easy utilization of the knowledge gained from NET Power’s successful natural gas sCO2 combustor test. The data generated during testing will be used to design, build, and test a production combustor that will demonstrate ignition, start-up, steady state performance, blow-out condition, and durability during testing at steady state conditions. This effort will provide the data needed to commercialize a 200-300 MWe Allam-Fetvedt coal plant, which would be built utilizing a radial array of ten to twelve 50 MW_th syngas combustors or with one or two large silo-type combustors.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will continue the development and validation of 3D-printed intensified devices (i.e., mass exchange packing with internal cooling channels) for application in absorption columns to enhance carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture processes. In previous U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded projects, ORNL exhibited that the novel packing can effectively achieve mass exchange and heat exchange functionalities in a lab-scale column using an aqueous amine solvent (FWP-FEAA130) and using an advanced water-lean solvent (FWP-FEAA375). In this project, ORNL will: (1) design and construct a larger-scale column (“Column B”) than previously tested at ORNL to further validate enhanced CO₂ capture with 3D-printed intensified devices for aqueous amine-based capture at more realistic operating conditions; (2) assess the modularity of “Column B” with the intensified devices by removing certain elements to allow for operation with advanced water-lean solvents; and (3) confirm that “Column B” can be easily configured to effectively capture CO₂ from different inlet gas CO₂ compositions and during process transients.

Nexceris, LLC (Lewis Center, OH) will scale reversible solid oxide cell (RSOC) and stack technology to the prototype system level and demonstrate world-class performance that will allow achieving hydrogen production cost goals at a large-scale system level (100 kW or larger). Nexceris’ cell and stack technology will be leveraged in this project. The goal of the proposed project is to demonstrate a RSOC system with the following attributes: minimum of 1 kW power generation in fuel cell mode (2+ kW in electrolysis mode) and roundtrip stack efficiency (RTE) of at least 60 percent, capability for dynamic switching between fuel cell and electrolysis modes in response to fluctuating grid demands, capability for operating in the pure electrolysis mode to produce hydrogen at sufficiently high efficiency to enable hydrogen cost of less than $2/kg (at scale, assuming an appropriate system design), and flexibility to perform steam electrolysis or steam/CO₂ co-electrolysis.

Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) will perform a Front-End Design and Engineering (FEED) study on an oxygen-blown gasification system coupled with water-gas shift, pre-combustion CO₂ capture, and pressure-swing adsorption working off a coal/biomass mix to yield high-purity hydrogen and a fuel off-gas that can generate power. Several designs capable of producing 50 MW net from a flexible generator, over 8500 kg/hr. of hydrogen, and net-negative CO₂ emissions at an efficiency of 50% net HHV are being considered. The plant will be hosted at one of two Nebraska Public Power District sites, where opportunities for enhanced oil recovery and sequestration have been investigated and the need for low-carbon power and hydrogen is imminent. The principal biomass to be used is corn stover—prevalent in Nebraska where the plant will be located—mixed with Powder River Basin coal, necessitating a gasifier that can use this feedstock and be flexible to allow other types. Other forms of biomass and waste plastics will also be reviewed for use. Two oxygen-blown gasifiers have been identified as candidates that have done testing with biomass, including corn stover: a Gas Technology Institute gasifier (a high-pressure, fluidized-bed type) and Hamilton Maurer International’s gasifier (a lower pressure moving-bed type). Both have relative advantages that will be investigated in the Phase I design study, with a resultant down-select of one system for which the FEED will be performed in Phase II.

The University at Buffalo (UB) is teaming up with Arizona State University (ASU) and Gas Technology Institute (GTI) to develop an innovative sorbent comprised of trapped small amines in hierarchical nanoporous capsules (HNCs) embedded in porous electrospun fibers (PEFs) for direct air capture (DAC). The effective encapsulation of amines in HNCs will enable high sorbent stability and the innovative PEF macroscopic scaffold will allow for fast exposure of sorbent material to air. Research efforts involve the tailoring of both sorbent and PEF materials to achieve a compact system for DAC with high capacities for carbon dioxide (CO₂) at concentrations typically available in air and at near-ambient conditions. UB will prepare the HNCs with trapped small amines, which will be incorporated into PEFs by ASU. UB will then test the PEFs with the embedded sorbent material to collect data on CO₂ working capacity and adsorption/desorption rates. GTI will use the data to perform a high-level process design and analysis for the application of the sorbent material for DAC.

The primary objective of this work is to extend the previous research results beyond the proof-of-concept phase. This will include verification and validation testing with direct support and collaboration from operating power plants with advanced power generation technologies and prime mover and downstream systems using the near-real-time data provided through the SPS Operational Reliability Analysis Program (ORAP®) and ORAP Asset Insight data system

Commercial sources of rare earth elements include bastnaesite (La, Ce)FCO₃, monazite, (Ce, La, Th)PO₄, and xenotime, YPO₄. However, the processing of these materials to extract and recover rare earth elements is both challenging and process intensive. Interestingly, there are numerous unconventional domestic sources of rare earth elements, including coal fly ash, which can be extracted beneficially. Presently, there are several physical and chemical methods typically employed to separate the materials of interest from gangue material, which usually leads to the production of a mixed rare earth element concentrate. The mixed rare earth concentrate is then subjected to an entirely separate process to isolate the individual rare earth elements into high-purity materials for use in commercial applications.

GlycoSurf and its project partners Wayne State University and UCLA will build on the company's past successes for ligand-associated separation media to develop a new class of sorption media and a process to separate individual rare earth elements, resulting in individual high-purity rare earth oxide (REO) powders. This new class of sorption media will combine two classes of ligands: (1) glycolipids and (2) DTPA analogs, synthesized in-house for fundamental testing for the proposed novel process to concentrate REEs from coal leachates. The process will also allow for the separation of mixed light REEs from the heavy REEs, along with separation of these concentrates into individually separated REE materials. The team anticipates that Phase II will result in REO purity >90% with 10-15 processing steps, as opposed to hundreds to thousands of steps for current liquid-liquid separations.

The overall objective of the work is to build and test a full-scale prototype of a technology for clean water production from cooling tower water. The prototype will be installed on a large-scale natural gas power plant. The project will include the full engineering of the prototype, integration into a fossil plant, and testing to quantify water production rate and water quality. The durability of the equipment will be monitored as well for any potential component degradation.

Purdue University will investigate flame structure and dynamics for gas turbine combustion with hydrogen and another hydrogen-based fuel—ammonia—and with mixtures of these fuels with natural gas. The researchers will explore processes such as flame stabilization, ignition, and flashback, and characterize combustion efficiency and pollutant emissions under combustion conditions characteristic of commercial aeroderivative and heavy-duty F- and H-class gas-turbine systems. The research will focus on additive manufacturing of a multi-stage, multi-tube micro-mixing (M3) injector with straight channels to carry the heated air and featuring staged transverse jet injection of fuels to vary the degree of premixing at the channel exit. The system will be configured so that any of the three fuels—hydrogen, ammonia or natural gas, or their blends—can be injected at multiple injection locations. The experiments will be performed in the Combustor Rig for Advanced Diagnostics (COMRAD) test rig developed in collaboration with General Electric. The study will be performed with the M3 injector in two test-article configurations, all anchored to the COMRAD test rig: one for steady state operation for flame structure and emissions characterization, and another for combustion dynamics characterization with well-defined acoustic boundaries. Flame structure and dynamics will be investigated using several laser diagnostics including dual-pump coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), ultrahigh-speed particle imaging velocimetry, and planar laser-induced fluorescence. The researchers will perform line CARS for temperature measurements and for concentration measurements of species such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water. In addition, probe sampling of the flame gases will be performed to determine the combustion efficiency and measure pollutant emissions.

Purdue University will develop a novel, compact combustor-diffuser-turbine strategy to transition high-speed, unsteady flow from rotating detonation combustors (RDCs) to industrial turbines. Physics-based-models will be developed to scale results to an F-class turbine, culminating in an experimental/numerical methodology to establish a successful architecture and the relevant nondimensional parameters for Powerplant operation at high thermodynamic cycle efficiency. The specific project objectives are to characterize the influence of various loss mechanisms on the performance metrics of RDC-turbine systems via integration of experimental and computational studies and develop the efficient transition of the high-Mach-number, unsteady RDC outlet into a turbine rotor for reliable work extraction. The research methodology involves three tasks: loss budgeting in a combustor with a downstream transition element and Nozzle Guide Vane (NGV); demonstrating the coupling of the RDC – flow transition and NGV turbine to produce work; and scaling experimental and computational studies to F-class and aero-derivative class rotating detonation engine (RDE) gas turbine integrated systems. The proposed approach will rely on a combined experimental and computational effort.

Ohio State University and the University of Michigan will develop a joint experimental-computational program to advance high-hydrogen content operation of gas turbines. The main objectives are to use advanced laser diagnostics to conduct simultaneous measurements of multiple flame related quantities to study flameholding, flashback, and axial fuel staging; develop a comprehensive suite of computational models to simulate unsteady and transient processes related to flame stabilization and flashback; and combine experiments and simulations to characterize operability and operational limits for a multi-tube primary burner with axial fuel staging design. The research team will use hydrogen/methane mixtures at engine-relevant conditions to study design issues critical to low-NOx multi-tube burner technology. Using canonical test configurations and multi-parameter time-resolved laser diagnostic measurements, flame processes in jets-in-crossflow configurations will be studied. In particular, the effects of flow properties (momentum, fuel composition, crossflow thermochemical composition) will be used to understand flame stabilization. Similarly, boundary layer flashback dynamics in narrow channels will be studied. Large eddy simulation-based modeling of gas turbines will be pursued, including development of flame-generated manifolds for combustion description, anisotropic near-wall models to describe flame propagation in boundary layers, and techniques for extracting models from high-fidelity direct numerical simulations. Validated models will be used to study the design space to understand operational limits for a model gas turbine with multi-tube burner and axial fuel staging.

University of Alabama and Virginia Tech will develop a robust methodology to integrate a rotating detonation combustor (RDC) with a gas turbine, and to identify the impact of loss mechanisms on detonation performance in the RDC. Hydrogen and hydrogen-methane fuel mixtures at conditions relevant to F-class gas turbine engines will be used. The research team will minimize flow unsteadiness at the RDC exit and maximize pressure gain by applying computational and experimental techniques to optimize the flow path in an annular RDC channel by strategically constricting the flow area to improve the stability of detonation and to weaken the oblique shock wave(s) for higher performance. In addition, the team will apply computational and experimental techniques to optimize and integrate the RDC with a diffuser for F-class gas turbines. The methodology developed will be applicable to aeroderivative gas turbines. Lastly, computational and experimental techniques will be applied to an optimized RDC-diffuser design to quantify the impact of loss mechanisms in the combustion process associated with non-ideal mixing, mixed mode combustion (deflagration/detonation), and wave mode/numbers in the RDC. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations will be performed and validated against detailed experimental data sets. A Design of Experiments approach will be applied to optimize geometric parameters of the RDC annular flow path and the integrated RDC-diffuser design. In addition, CFD simulations on the fully integrated RDC-diffuser design will be performed at select operating conditions to quantify the impact of loss mechanisms in the combustion process. Experiments will be performed using RDC and integrated RDC-diffuser system. A plenum with a backpressure plate will be used to simulate the turbine flow path. Pressure probes, ion-probes, dynamic pressure probes, and advanced high-speed, diagnostic techniques including particle image velocimetry and rainbow schlieren deflectometry will be used to quantify the flow unsteadiness, pressure gain (loss), and to generate a robust validation data set.

This project is producing new cost-effective, and self-validating fault/fracture detection and characterization algorithms using surface seismic data. New methods are being developed to detect and directly image large-scale, previously unidentified crystalline basement faults and associated small-scale fractures. Direct imaging of faults and fractures represents a major advancement over conventional workflows in which faults and fractures are interpreted from seismic images. Indirectly juxtaposing the imaged faults and fractures in a 3D geological model will yield crucial interpretable information about the subsurface stress field and the maximum magnitude of a potentially induced earthquake in the basement. A synthetic dataset and a multicomponent 9C field seismic dataset acquired at Wolf Springs Field in central Montana will be used to validate these methods. The use of multicomponent seismic data can yield consistent imaging results. This work will provide new and crucial information during the site selection phase for geologic carbon storage and seismic hazard assessment.

University of Central Florida researchers will conduct fundamental experimental and numerical investigations that cover previously unexplored hydrogen containing fuel blends and conditions. The choice of mixtures, diluents, and conditions will support combustors being developed and targeted by various original equipment manufacturers. Expected results include autoignition characteristics, NO and CO time-histories, laminar and turbulent burning velocities, strain rates and their relationship to NOx, the impact of preferential diffusion on combustion characteristics, and an understanding of flashback in turbulent boundary layers through high-fidelity simulations. The shock tube technique will be used to collect autoignition times and species time-histories through laser absorption spectroscopy, a constant-volume chamber, and high-speed schlieren imagery to obtain laminar burning velocities. A counter-flow flame experiment will be conducted to understand the strain rate/NOx relationship. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism will be updated to improve its prediction of fuel oxidation and NOx under conditions relevant to combustors. The rate constants of important reactions will be estimated using the quantum chemistry approach. Further, a novel approach that accounts for turbulence and chemistry interactions will be used to reduce the detailed chemical kinetic mechanism generated in this work. Direct numerical simulations will be performed to investigate the significance of preferential diffusion and the need to upgrade existing combustion models to improve their predictability. Large-Eddy Simulations will be performed to investigate the impact of mixture concentrations, flow, and boundary conditions on turbulent boundary layer flashback. Finally, a deep-learning Artificial Intelligence model will be pursued for rapid analysis of detailed fundamental combustion characteristics that support the design and troubleshooting process of H₂-containing fuel combustor development. The experimental results will serve as validation targets for the computational portions of this application.

Thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) is an alternative energy technology to produce (blue) hydrogen by decarbonizing fossil fuels, providing a bridge to the hydrogen economy. A limitation is the ongoing deactivation of the carbon catalyst as deposited carbon from the decomposition reaction reduces the number of catalyst active sites. Cyclic regeneration complements the TCD reaction by creating new active sites through partial oxidation by CO₂, renewing carbon catalyst activity. Moreover, partial gasification of deposited carbon by H₂0 (generating H₂, the desired end product) also regenerates the catalyst. This establishes applicability of electric (E-) field enhancement to a coal feed and serves as a baseline for gasification of coal. Neither TCD nor carbon oxidation has been tested under an E-field for change in activation energy or mechanism. For both reactions, an imposed electric field may maintain and potentially increase the reaction rate, either by an increase in active site number or a shift in component energy level and the associated activation energy for reactions.

It is hypothesized that an applied E-field changes the reaction mechanism. This project will test two field configurations, perpendicular imposing only voltage stress and parallel imposing current stress. Active site and kinetic dependence upon reactive gases and their concentrations will be mapped parametrically as a function of applied E-field strength, polarity, direction, and frequency. Changes in rates may be resolved by active site number or activation energy. ReaxFF (reaction force field)-based molecular dynamics simulations will be compared to experimental measurements of activation energy and kinetics of deposition to test the hypothesis that the E-field changes the reaction mechanism, manifested by activation energy and kinetics of deposition, for both TCD and regeneration reactions.

This project will build upon existing experience with cellular based systems, power plant water quality sensing, and high-temperature sensors developed during past projects. The main objective of this project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of 5G cellular embedded, cloud, and edge computing-based sensors specific to coal-fired power plant needs where harsh, noisy RF conditions are encountered. Sensors that utilize 5G for data communications are the first logical step in revolutionizing wireless connectivity that will enable robust operations in coal-fired power plants. Working together, Ohio University and WVU will focus on a high-priority in-situ boiler temperature measurement system that relies on chipless RFID technology and much-needed temperature, pressure, environmental, and water quality industrial sensors.

The specific project objectives are (1) investigate specific needs of interfacing and data collection of identified sensing areas of significance within coal-fired power plants that would immediately benefit from 5G wireless data communications, (2) enable 5G data communication for ‘peel-and-stick’ chipless RFID-based boiler temperature and corrosion sensors, (3) demonstrate effectiveness and performance of 5G enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors used in coal-fired power plants, (4) investigate sensor-driven deep learning/artificial intelligence using laboratory conditions that simulate power plants for system health monitoring, and (5) determine the limits of 5G systems in harsh environments–hot, humid, and cold.

The objective of this project is for American Public Power Association (APPA) to employ its unique capabilities and position as a convener of community-owned electric utilities (public power utilities) to evaluate opportunities to integrate energy storage technologies with fossil power plants. APPA will consult with partner utilities to identify their needs and motivations in relation to integrating energy storage with fossil power plants and use the findings to create a storage project maturity framework showing specific knowledge gaps by project stage. APPA will use this framework to create both educational resources and publications tailored to public power utilities and technical tools that build utilities’ capacity for situation-specific project analysis (such as where to place storage units). APPA will also plan and/or host educational events such as conference sessions, workshops, and webinars. These events will be designed to allow experts in the field to engage with associated members on topics relevant to various maturity stages over project period, advancing in maturity and complexity.

The objective of this Department of Energy (DOE)-United States Geological Survey (USGS) Interagency Agreement is to provide geologic and geophysical technical support to the Alaska Gas Hydrate Production Field Experiment. The specific goal of this cooperative effort is to support the planning, operations, and analysis of the technical results of the Alaska North Slope Extended Gas Hydrate Production Test, as supported by the goals of the 2005 Energy Act for National Methane Hydrates R&D, the DOE-led US interagency roadmap for gas hydrates research, and elements of the USGS mission related to energy resources.

This agreement is intended to provide support to the DOE and its research partners in understanding, predicting, and testing the recoverability and production characteristics of onshore natural gas hydrate in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area on the Alaska North Slope through the planning, operation, and analysis of the technical results of the planned Alaska North Slope Extended Gas Hydrate Production Test. To do so, the work to be conducted under this agreement is designed to contribute to the field implementation plan in support of the project well drilling, completion, and testing program. This cooperative project will also provide direct technical support to the field drilling and associated geologic and production test data acquisition phases of the field test. Within this agreement, the USGS shall also play a key role in organizing and analyzing the geologic and production test data as it is collected during the planned Alaska North Slope Extended Gas Hydrate Production Test.

This project is advancing an integrated open raceway algae cultivation and processing system to engineering-scale for carbon capture and utilization (CCU) from the flue gas of a naphtha-fired power plant. Global Algae Innovations has developed a technology suite for algae carbon capture, cultivation, and processing that includes improvements to each process step. This technology suite will be scaled up to an integrated engineering-scale system for algae CCU from the flue gas through final products. The systems will be used for parametric testing followed by a long-term testing over the course of a year to obtain design scaling parameters and to quantify the economic and life-cycle benefits of the technology.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) recently developed a dual functional porous catalytic polymer material that simultaneously captures and catalytically converts CO₂ to a value-added, easily transportable liquid product, i.e. formic acid. The project will scale up the materials and design a scalable flow bed reactor system. Reactor modeling, including MFiX simulations in collaboration with NETL, will be employed to understand sorption, kinetics and thermodynamics throughout the process to enhance reactor design, while technoeconomic and life cycle analysis will guide and facilitate the evaluation of economic competitiveness of the alternative formic acid production pathway for commercial scale production. 

This project is developing a technique capable of locating and predicting the movement of carbon dioxide (CO₂) within a deep subsurface storage complex by detecting and analyzing acoustic emissions (AE) signals generated by the migration of CO₂ from a storage reservoir into an overriding geologic confining unit. The technique includes a theoretical, physics-based model capable of predicting AE signals from CO₂ flow in porous media, which will be validated with laboratory experiments and fluid flow simulations.

This project will develop and apply multiphysics and multiscale simulation methods for efficient electromagnetic (EM) energy assisted conversion from fossil fuel to low-cost hydrogen. This will entail the development and investigation of computational methods in two major thrust areas:

1. Modeling and simulation methods for coupled multiphysics phenomena involving EM, plasma physics, thermal and fluid dynamics, and quantum chemistry across multiple spatial scales from macro, meso, to microscopic scales and temporal scales from nanoseconds to minutes.
2. Simulation-guided designs for EM energy assisted high-throughput, high-yield, and low-cost hydrogen generation from fossil fuels such as methane and methanol.

Together, these will be used to target four specific objectives: (1) understanding 3D structures of catalysts and their supports; (2) characterization of EM hotspots within heterogeneous catalysis; (3) multiphysics investigation of EM energy assisted catalytic active sites enhancement; and (4) system design and optimization for high-yield and low-cost hydrogen generation.

The Regents of the University of California, San Diego will evaluate and demonstrate a highly efficient, durable, and reduction-oxidation (redox) resistant solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) technology for hydrogen production. This project focuses on the development of a novel cell design and its corresponding manufacturing processes. The proposed SOEC technology consists of two elements: 1) a cell design with the hydrogen electrode composed of two layers – a 3D hydrogen electrode support layer (for improved cell redox resistance) and an exsolved perovskite hydrogen electrode active layer (for enhanced cell performance and increased durability) and 2) a manufacturing scheme incorporating advanced inkjet printing, an additive manufacturing process, and photonic sintering, a relatively new industrial firing method, for fabrication of the cell configuration. The proposed project will culminate in the demonstration of a scaled-up SOEC featuring a design with improved performance, enhanced redox resistance, and increased durability under conditions suitable for hydrogen production from steam. The results of the project could form the basis for further development to advance the technology for practical applications and commercialization.

The project addresses fundamental algae-based carbon capture and utilization (CCU) challenges via integrating a cutting-edge carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture/controlled release sorbent with a breakthrough continuous cultivation system. The cultivation system features a frequent, low-cost harvest that maximizes light-driven carbon capture, utilization and valuable chemical and biomass production. The project is further enhanced by using hydrogel technology to reduce media cost, fertilize the algae with controlled carbon and nutrient delivery, and balance bicarbonate with CO₂ to improve carbon uptake and conversion.

The objective of this field work proposal is to develop a reactive capture and conversion (RCC) process based around a dual-functional material capable of producing renewable natural gas (RNG) from air. The project is developing a new class of hybrid organic-inorganic materials based on amines for direct air capture and atomically dispersed metal catalysts for methanation. These materials will be cycled between adsorption and conversion in a reactive-swing process that does not compromise either the amine or the metal catalyst. The composition of the material will optimized to match the rates and magnitudes of capture and conversion, with the goal of maximizing productivity while minimizing the cost and carbon intensity of the produced RNG. A successful project will develop a process for direct air reactive capture and conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into RNG using hybrid adsorbent-catalyst dual-functional materials that allows for a >15% relative improvement in the RNG minimum fuel selling price and carbon intensity compared to baseline scenarios.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette will develop high-performance metal-supported solid oxide electrolysis cells and innovative diagnostic methodologies to achieve net-zero or negative emissions. The team plans to fabricate metal-supported solid oxide electrolysis cells (MS-SOECs) to improve the electrolysis performance while maintaining mechanical strength for the stack assembly and systematically investigate the role of cell parameters, including anode thickness, electronic conduction in the cathode interface, and cathode composition, on the electrochemical performance of button cells and single cells. Next, accelerated test protocols for SOECs will be developed. The team will then apply theoretical analysis to incorporate the electronic conduction at the interface between the oxygen electrode and electrolyte to improve its stability and suppress oxygen electrode degradation. Finally, machine learning will be used to study the dependence of electrochemical performance on microstructural details of an electrode, including tortuosity, pore connectivity, pore size and size distribution, and grain size and size distribution.

The University of South Carolina (USC) will develop a simplified, low-cost, high-efficiency reversible solid oxide cell (RSOC) that produces standalone power, hydrogen, or hybrid power/hydrogen. The activities of the project include: (1) developing a stable barrier-layer-free oxygen electrode (OE), (2) developing the bilayer oxygen electrode through atomic layer deposition (ALD), (3) developing a graded porosity and open channel hydrogen electrode (HE) substrate embedded with active catalyst (4) partnering with PNNL to develop multi-level materials/microstructure cell validation (5) and developing Multiphysics models to understand the degradation mechanisms and failure modes of the oxygen electrode. By implementing these foundational materials and microstructure innovations into practical systems, the project could assist the commercialization course of RSOC technology and expand it to utility markets such as distributed standalone or hybrid power and hydrogen generation as a means of energy storage solution.

The overall objective is to integrate new and legacy critical mineral (CM) geochemical data with new basin-wide stratigraphic correlations of coal resources and genetically related strata within the greater Cherokee-Forest City Basin (CFCB) which encompasses parts of Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Osage Nation. Analyses will include new and/or existing drill cores located throughout the basin and assays from coal mine waste sites in historic mine districts to assess the rare earth elements (REE) and critical mineral potential within the region. The Recipient will also test a novel downhole elemental analysis tool at a number of new and/or existing well localities that are proximal and reliably correlated to drill cores. The Recipient will leverage previous and ongoing geologic assessments by United States Geological Survey-funded projects looking at REE and critical minerals within aluminum-rich underclays and phosphatic black shales of similar age. Current and ongoing bio-chemostratigraphic analyses and recalibration of stratigraphic correlations in the region by the Recipient—and accompanying new basin models constructed by the Recipient—will also be leveraged for interpretation of acquired data.

This study will encompass: (1) a basinal assessment of carbon ore, rare earth, and critical mineral (CORE-CM) resources, including aggregation of historical data, new depositional and structural modeling, and CORE-CM resource assessment; (2) development of a basinal strategy for reuse of waste streams and assist in the development of necessary infrastructure needed to mine and process both natural and waste REE/critical mineral materials; (3) development of a technology assessment and field-testing plan to identify technology gaps associated with the mining process and ways in which the mining technique may be improved; (4) planning for a technology innovation center that fosters public-private partnerships (providing a nucleus of expertise and facilities) that are focused on rapid commercialization of CORE-CM resources within the basin and identification of emerging technologies that can incorporate coal and coal by-products as a feedstock; and (5) development of a stakeholder outreach and education plan that will include educational forums, workshops, digital media, and publications.  

Solar Turbines Inc. will develop a retrofittable dry low NOx emissions gas turbine combustion system based on micromixer and lean direct injection technologies for 100% hydrogen and hydrogen / natural gas blends. The project team will build and rig test a complete combustion system on 100% hydrogen and various natural gas blends to demonstrate prototype feasibility and combustion performance leveraging existing hydrogen combustion technology at the early development stage and advancing it into an engine-ready design. Additional objectives include the development of engine control algorithms and hydrogen flame detection methodologies, and the development of reduced kinetics mechanisms for use with CFD/LES analysis, that are validated by bench-scale and rig tests. If successful, the project will enable industrial gas turbines to provide carbon free, rapidly dispatchable power that is vital to grid stability.

The project aims to develop novel high-temperature alloys from Ni-based alloys that further integrate additive manufacturing (AM) fabrication, creating novel nanoscale oxide precipitation for strengthened mechanical integrity and enhanced oxidation resistance, and subsequent application of conformal protective coatings on the additive manufactured alloys. To increase the strength and oxidation resistance of nickel alloys, erbium and titanium oxide (Er₂O₃ and TiO) precipitants will be added to the AM powders for the Inconel 625 alloy and result in dense nano-oxide precipitation of Er₂O₃ and Er₂Ti₂O₇, which will result in a solution-strengthened novel Ni-based alloy. Furthermore, a conformal protective oxide coating layer will be simultaneously applied on both the internal and external surface of the additive manufactured heat exchangers with complex geometry using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD layer will be conformal, uniform, pin-hole free, dense, and ultra-thin with negligible weight gain to increase both the oxidation and corrosion resistance at elevated temperatures.

The project is organized into 5 Tasks. Task 1 is project management. Task 2 is devoted to introducing the dense precipitates into the Ni-based alloys through AM. Task 3 is devoted to ALD coating of the newly additive manufactured 3D printed Ni-based alloys and ALD repairing and recoating the alloys after oxidation exposure. Task 4 is the oxidation resistance testing of the additive manufactured and ALD coated Ni-based alloys. Task 5 is the comprehensive physical properties testing, and nanostructure analysis of the additive manufactured alloys (including the ones with precipitates), ALD coated alloys, and the alloys after exposure to the oxidation and corrosion environments.

Georgia Tech Research Corporation seeks to develop a scientifically rigorous foundational understanding of key kinetic, flame propagation, and emissions characteristics of high hydrogen fuels at gas turbine relevant conditions. This research project involves comprehensive combustion experiments with closely coupled modeling work to understand ignition, combustion, and emissions behavior for high-hydrogen content fuels as compared to natural gas. This project has four key objectives: 1) Development of comprehensive database on autoignition delays for hydrogen containing fuels, including pure hydrogen and ammonia, hydrogen/natural gas blends, and ammonia/hydrogen blends at realistic gas turbine conditions; 2) Measurement of turbulent flame speeds and emissions of hydrogen containing fuels at different turbulence levels; 3) Measurement of laminar flame speeds of hydrogen containing fuels at high preheating conditions in shock tube; and 4) Validation and optimization of existing kinetic models using data obtained from experiments and development of reduced kinetic models specific for hydrogen containing fuels.

San Diego State University (San Diego, CA) researchers, with partner Solar Turbines Inc., will execute a collaborative university/original equipment manufacturer (OEM) simulation and test program to advance the design of additively manufactured (AM) hydrogen micromix turbine combustors in industrial gas turbines. Because of the combined novelty of hydrogen fuels and AM, no good practice exists for OEM engineers to design robust AM hydrogen combustors. This project aims to develop a generalized modeling framework to predict the effect of geometric design and manufacturing anomalies of hydrogen fuel injectors on mixing, flow rates, pressure losses, heat transfer and flame stability. A chemically reacting flow computation of a single injector array injection into cross airflow above a smooth wall will set a baseline. The effect of several injector and combustor configurations of increasing complexity with multiple injector arrays and wall roughness will be systematically investigated. Design rules and reduced models will be formulated by combining high fidelity simulations of chemically reacting flow, stochastic modeling techniques, reduced modeling through machine learning and testing of injector configurations. These can be used in an industrial setting to predict the aerodynamic and combustion characteristics in hydrogen turbine combustors based upon which design decisions are made.

Helios-NRG is developing a novel algae technology to capture CO₂ from fossil fueled power plants and use the algae for products that generate revenue. Project activities will be supported by Helios-NRG partners State University of New York at Buffalo, Bozeman Fish Technology Center, The Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute, Craft Nutrition Consulting, Tresca Design, and the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC). The Multi Stage Continuous (MSC) flow capture system will be improved to increase the algae productivity and reduce the culturing costs through a suite of technology advances. These include improvements to culture operation and health, control, and gas dissolution. The updated MSC technology will then be operated at NCCC using flue gas from the fossil fuel-fired plant to demonstrate high CO₂ capture efficiency and productivity. The potential to generate revenue from algae will be advanced by developing value-added feed and nutraceutical products. Algae-blended feed will be validated in a field test using a large-scale aquaculture system. Nutraceuticals will be advanced to identify marketable products and commercial paths forward. Techno-economic and life cycle analyses will be performed on a modeled commercial system using data from the project to validate the potential to achieve the Department of Energy/Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management goals of a <$30/ton CO₂ capture cost and a net reduction in CO₂ emissions.

This project is developing a new strategy for monitoring seal integrity combining borehole-based Continuous Active Source Seismic Monitoring (CASSM) with next-generation distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) acquisition to improve the resolution and economic viability of such approaches. Prior generations of borehole sources used for CASSM radiate in the kHz range while DAS tends to have problematic optical noise above 500 Hz; this mismatch will be remedied by (a) development of a new borehole source tuned to lower frequencies; and (b) employing a new DAS interrogator design with improved response in the kHz range. These advances in acquisition technology will be paired with research into relevant processing including novel time-lapse full waveform inversion (FWI) approaches and coda wave analysis techniques. This combined approach will be tested at two different field locations: (1) a shallow (100 m depth) borehole test site located on the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas (the Rice Subsurface Test Facility – RSTF); and (2) the Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory in Switzerland, where an existing array of 23 boreholes equipped with behind-casing fiberoptics will be used to validate the technology during a sequence of controlled fault leakage experiments. These tests will probe the capacity of the CASSM/DAS approach to quantify low-rate leakage scenarios which would be missed by conventional monitoring approaches.

The objective of the OASIS project is to assist in providing educational resources, outreach, training, workshops, and other means to electric cooperatives to empower them to integrate energy technologies with their generation systems. NRECA will also conduct coordination and outreach with its smaller electric generation utility members to facilitate awareness, transfer technology, and share best practices, lessons learned, and partnering on Fossil Energy projects. NRECA will enlist educational resources, available staff, case studies, guidelines, best practices, and training on common strategies for integrating energy technologies with fossil power plants and enhancing organizational capacities at utilities. NRECA will facilitate and convene meetings and events with cooperative utilities to define barriers to energy storage deployment and work with DOE and other stakeholders to overcome these barriers.

The goal of this project is to develop a 5G integrated distributed edge computing framework that facilitates real-time monitoring of critical components in coal-fired power plants (CFPPs).

The objectives of the proposed effort are as follows:

(1) Distributed Edge Computing Service (DECS) Orchestration for CFPP Component Monitoring – Develop an on-demand distributed edge computing platform to gather, process, and efficiently analyze the component health data in the CFPPs. Given that edge computing servers are closer to the field devices in modernized power plants, the efficiency of edge computing service with respect to dynamic orchestration, resource data collection, and health information monitoring will be investigated for timely detection of remote faults and to perform diagnosis.

(2) Deploy and Integrate 5G networking to enable QoS (Quality of Service)-Aware Network Slicing – Leverage software-defined networking and network function virtualization mechanisms of 5G to instantiate a logically separated component monitoring network slice that will be integrated with DECS for time-sensitive and efficient transfer of CFPP component health data.

(3) Prototype Development and Empirical Evaluation – Develop a customizable 5G-capable distributed edge computing prototype with a separate network slice for efficient plant component monitoring. In addition, extensive performance evaluation of the developed platform will be conducted by measuring several critical metrics.

Since traditional component monitoring in CFPP is done manually using costly portable testing equipment, it is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive maintenance process. Thus, integration of 5G-enabled sensor communication with edge computing infrastructure will be able to monitor the health of components in a CFPP in real time and in an automated manner using machine learning capabilities. The proposed 5G integrated distributed edge computing framework will facilitate plant operators in conducting real-time monitoring of critical components in CFPPs. Furthermore, the 5G-based communication infrastructure will allow orchestration of on-demand network slices in order to dynamically meet the component monitoring data throughput and quality of service requirements. This R&D will produce a working prototype using 5G-compliant sensors, remote terminal units, and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) servers.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) is enhancing the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management's ability to educate and inform state utility regulators on important issues surrounding the use of coal-fired power and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. NARUC plans to research, analyze, and socialize among its membership regulatory strategies around modernizing coal infrastructure. NARUC is highlighting key federal and private sector investments in research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) of CCUS technologies; elevate opportunities for state utility regulators to help shape these investments and their deployment for greater impact; and translate complex, technical topics into language accessible to state utility regulators through the development of educational briefs and information sessions. NARUC supports states in developing strategies to leverage and enhance the attributes of the existing coal fleet. NARUC’s research, policy support, and convening activities focuses on areas that are of high importance to the State Public Utility Commissions to enhance coordination between state and federal government.

CORE-CM projects focus on six objectives: (1) basinal assessment of CORE-CM Resources, (2) basinal stategies for reuse of waste streams, (3) basinal strategies for infrastructure, industries, and businesses, (4) technology assessment, development, and field testing, (5) technology innovation centers, and (6) stakeholder outreach and education.

The specific objective of this project is to determine the REE and CM resource potential in coal and related stratigraphic units in the San Juan and Raton Basins, NM. The project will (1) identify and quantify the distribution of REE and CM in coal beds and related stratigraphic units in the San Juan and Raton basins, (2) identify and characterize the sources of REE and CM, and (3) evaluate the basinal industry infrastructure and determine the economic viability of industrial upgrading. New Mexico Tech will conduct the following tasks: (1) a basinal assessment for CM and REE potential, using state-of-the-art technologies to estimate basin-wide CM and REE resources in coal and related stratigraphic units; (2) identify, sample, and characterize coal waste stream products; (3) conduct bench tests to develop a basinal reuse of waste strategy; (4) illustrate the current status of the feedstock supply of REE and CM to understand the basinal REE industry's capital expenditures and obstacles to expanding REE-related business development; (5) develop a life-cycle analysis to establish pathways, process engineering, and design requirements to upgrade REE processing industry, (6) evaluate technology gaps, (7) establish a Center of Excellence (COE) and training center for coal ash beneficiation at San Juan County; and (8) create REE research-based activities that can be shared during the NMBGMR summer geology teacher workshop and assemble REE research-related articles for an REE-centered issue of Lite Geology. This project will delineate favorable geologic terranes and priority areas containing potential REE and CM deposits for the DOE mandate, which is also a priority of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (NMBGMR) and State of New Mexico. This project also is important to the State of New Mexico because REE and CM resources must be identified before land use decisions are made by government officials. Future mining of REE and CM will directly benefit the economy of NM. Furthermore, it is crucial to re-establish a domestic source of REE and CM minerals in the U.S. to help secure the nation’s clean energy future, reducing the vulnerability of the U.S. to material shortages related to national defense, and to maintain our global technical and economic competitiveness. Another aspect of this project is the training of the future workforce because students at New Mexico Tech and San Juan College will be hired to work on this project. Sampling locations will include active and inactive mines, and post-combustion coal ash landfills.

Major Participants: New Mexico Tech, represented by the Mineral Engineering Department; Bureau of Geology (NMBGMR, State Geological Survey) and Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL); San Juan College; and SonoAsh.

The National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) is providing outreach, training, and technical assistance to State Energy Offices, as well as facilitating dialogue and peer learning among states, federal agencies, utility and other industries, and other pertinent stakeholders. This project is focused on a set of activities designed to support engagement of the states on Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) work pertaining to emerging carbon management technologies; issues related to short-term and long-term applications of fossil fuels, their byproducts, and fossil fuel industrial and workforce capabilities; and the latest pre-commercial and commercial capabilities of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) facilities and other technological advances impacting the fossil fuel sector (e.g., hydrogen). The project supports efforts to: 1) share information; 2) exchange ideas across states, regions, DOE, and industry; 3) conduct data and policy analyses; 4) provide technical assistance and 5) provide Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) with input from NASEO members. NASEO is providing outreach, education, and training to states via in-person and virtual workshops, meetings, conferences, and web-based media to share resources and directly engage State Energy Offices and their partners.

The University of Cincinnati, in collaboration with BASF, Daeyoung C&E Co., and Trimeric, will evaluate a direct air capture (DAC) technology that uses a robust, energy-efficient, and cost-effective sorbent technology for capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from air. The sorbent selectively adsorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere and releases high-purity CO₂ gas during the regeneration stage that is suitable for various downstream CO₂ utilization processes and/or carbon storage. The project team will design a novel air contactor system that passively collects air and introduces the air flow to the DAC system, through the sorbent-coated monolith structure, without any additional energy requirement. The DAC process has the potential to be readily scalable to process gigatonne-level CO₂ separation from ambient air at a cost of less than $100/tonne CO₂ removed. The scope of work for this project will consist of the determination of CO₂ adsorption kinetics, process modeling, sorbent manufacturing, development of a sorbent-washcoated monolith structure, the design, fabrication, and operation of a passive air contactor, performance evaluations, and techno-economic and life cycle analyses.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in conjunction with Natural Resources Agency of California, the Bureau of Land Management, and the University of British Columbia, will develop a test site at the former King City Asbestos Corporation (KCAC) asbestos mine in California to evaluate multiple approaches for onsite mineralization of carbon dioxide (CO₂) using serpentinite rocks and asbestos mine tailings. LLNL will develop safety protocols to protect human health and safety and the environment, as well as monitoring protocols to reliably and cost-effectively measure CO₂ uptake. The project team will characterize the baseline mineralogy and geochemistry of the site through mineralogic samples and will conduct baseline monitoring of CO₂ fluxes at the KCAC test site. Based on these results, the team will design accelerated carbon mineralization experiments and perform one year of testing, followed by a phase for site restoration and publication of results. The overall objective of the project is to determine the most successful approaches to CO₂ mineralization of asbestos-bearing serpentinite rocks/mine tailings to enable the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and project developers to make informed choices about this pathway of carbon removal.

CORMETECH Inc., in collaboration with Middle River Power, Southern Company Services Inc., and Nooter/Eriksen will further develop, optimize, and bench-scale test a novel, lower-cost integrated process technology for point source capture (PSC) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) flue gas. Similar to Global Thermostat’s leading process for direct air capture (DAC), this novel PSC process employs a monolithic amine contactor to capture the CO₂, followed by steam-mediated thermal desorption and CO₂ collection, in a multi-bed cyclic process unit. The process, however, does not include vacuum for desorption to enhance scalability to large NGCC plants. The process will incorporate an oxide monolith + amine-structured contactor based on the benchmark poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) sorbent. Experimental measurements of material and process impacts on adsorption and oxidative stability under the relevant conditions will be coupled with various process and techno-economic models to inform the design and optimization. A bench-scale system will be operated continuously for at least one-month at the National Carbon Capture Center to validate that the PSC technology yields a minimum of 95% carbon capture efficiency with a 95% purity CO₂ product stream.

The main objective is to develop a lab-scale manufacturing process to fabricate filaments with high carbon content for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing use. Graphene particles derived from domestic U.S. coal wastes will be used as feedstock for filament development. The specific objectives are to (1) develop a coal-enhanced filament production technology to fabricate filament containing high loading of coal-derived graphene, (2) develop debinding and sintering post-processing to fabricate a fully carbon preform structure, (3) develop a composite material based on the fully carbon preform structure and explorationally evaluate composite properties as a potential alternative to carbon fiber composite, and (4) perform a full techno-economic analysis to assess the coal-enhanced filament potential for the fast-growing and high-value additive manufacturing and composite market.

Sustainable Energy Solutions LLC (SES) will partner with Chart Industries Inc., Eagle Materials Inc., and FLSmidth Inc. to advance the Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ (CCC) technology to engineering scale (30 tonnes of carbon dioxide [CO₂] captured/day). The project objectives are to design, build, and operate an engineering-scale plant with industrial post-process flue gas at the Eagle Materials/Central Plains Cement Plant in Sugar Creek, Missouri. The project goal is to demonstrate that the system captures more than 95% of the CO₂ from the flue gas slip stream and produces a CO₂ stream that is more than 95% pure. SES has completed thousands of hours of testing with their skid-scale (1-tonne CO₂/day) CCC system, achieving capture rates of 90–99.7% with high CO₂ purity (99+%).

The project will be executed in three phases to (1) design and size the major equipment for the process and finalize host site agreements and any required environmental or operational permits; (2) procure all equipment and construct and commission the engineering-scale system; and (3) operate the engineering-scale plant for at least two continuous months within a six-month testing period, followed by decommissioning and restoration of the host site. The project will continually update techno-economic and environmental, safety, and health analyses in parallel with the experimental work.

ION Clean Energy Inc. (ION) and Calpine California CCUS Holdings LLC (Calpine) will perform a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a solvent-based carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system to be retrofitted onto Calpine’s Delta Energy Center (DEC), an existing natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power station located in Pittsburg, California. The project team, consisting of ION, Calpine, Sargent & Lundy, Siemens, Jacobs, Toshiba, and Hamon-Daltek, will perform design, engineering, and analysis work to develop an AACE Class 3 Capital Cost Estimate (-20 to +30% accuracy); an overall cost of capture; and an analysis on environmental, economic, and social impacts to the Pittsburg-Antioch area. The team will endeavor to decarbonize DEC by capturing 95% of the CO₂ emissions for geologic storage in the nearby Sacramento Basin. This CO₂ capture plant design effort will utilize ION’s ICE-21 solvent and will be designed to take full advantage of the solvent benefits, which include a smaller physical plant, reduced energy requirements, less solvent degradation, lower emissions, and lower capital costs relative to systems built with commercial benchmark solvents. With the information developed through this project, combined with discussions with commercial partners, Calpine will be able to make an informed decision whether to proceed with deploying CO₂ capture at DEC.

The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (UK CAER) will design, retrofit, and test a dual solvent carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system on their existing 0.1-megawatt-thermal (MWth) bench-scale facility using natural gas-derived flue gas, augmented to match natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) CO₂ and oxygen (O₂) concentrations. The overall objective of the project is to develop a dual-loop CO₂ capture process (i.e., two solvent absorption/regeneration loops) for NGCC flue gas with 99+% CO₂ capture efficiency and a 50% reduction in capital cost (as compared to the National Energy Technology Laboratory [NETL] B31B case). The operating cost is offset with credits from negative CO₂ emissions and hydrogen (H₂) production. The project will involve system design and installation, parametric testing to determine optimal parameters to achieve high capture efficiency, and long-term evaluation and accelerated life cycle testing to determine component stability, system performance variation upon load changes, and energy consumption optimization.

The project team will implement the Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Separation (HHS) process that was developed at Virginia Tech for reducing mineral deposits in coal. The research and development will focus on cleaning low, medium, and high rank coals and resulting waste-coal streams generated when cleaning coals via froth flotation. The objective is to clean waste coal to sufficient levels, thereby making it suitable for feedstock in high-value synthetic graphite processes. Touchstone will determine coal candidates based upon degree of graphitization, high capacity for ash impurity reduction via HHS, and demonstration that the cleaned waste-coal feedstock can be successfully molded and graphitized to meet application requirements and specifications through test and validation. An objective is to transition the HHS coal-derived graphite technology processes from laboratory-scale proof of concept to pilot system validation in a relevant environment.

TDA Research Inc. proposes to develop a new sorbent-based direct air capture (DAC) system utilizing the waste heat from geothermal power plants to drive the carbon capture process. A small temperature differential is needed to operate the temperature swing adsorption (TSA) cycle (approximately 50-60^oC), which will remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) at approximately 500 parts per million by volume (ppmv) and concentrate it to a high pressure, pure gas at 1 atm. In Phase I, TDA will optimize the operation of the new sorbent to best match the operation of the geothermal energy generation cycle. In bench-scale proof-of-concept tests, TDA will demonstrate the sorbent capabilities (i.e., CO₂ uptake, energy requirement for the regeneration) and assess the sorbent life (both chemical and mechanical stability over many cycles). In a detailed process design and simulation, TDA will carry out the integration of the DAC process to the geothermal power plant. TDA will estimate the carbon capture cost following U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) process design and analysis guidelines.

Thermisoln LLC, in partnership with the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, is working to develop a switchable-hydrophilicity solvent (SHS)-based absorption process that can energy-efficiently capture and fixate carbon dioxide (CO₂) from point sources of carbon emissions at the same time. The process enables the upcycling of gypsum wastes and could achieve at least 90% CO₂ capture efficiency from flue gas without increasing the total cost of electricity by more than 35%. In Phase I, the team demonstrated the technical viability of the technology. Phase II will have the following five key components (with major emphasis on the last one): (1) further development and improvement of a gas-liquid impinging scrubber, (2) design of a powerful decanter for efficient separation of oil phase from related emulsions, (3) design of a CO₂ desorber for rapid CO₂ desorption at temperatures less than 65°C, (4) mitigation of solvent volatile loss, and (5) system integration and process intensification. An integrated prototype comprising all the key units will be built and tested in-house at bench scale to demonstrate the techno-economic advantages over other alternative carbon capture technologies.

Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. (ACT) and Lehigh University (LU) are developing a novel acid/base ion-exchange direct air capture (DAC) process during this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. This system is unique because sorbent regeneration can be driven by either a low-grade heat source (industrial waste heat or geothermal) or an electrically derived weak base solution. During Phase I, the project team demonstrated carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture rates of greater than 90%, with thermal regeneration of the sorbent occurring at temperatures as low as approximately 50°C. The DAC system uses widely available commercial adsorbent resins, which reduce cost and help alleviate supply constraints. The system design and layout allow it to scale easily and be implemented as a modular system, minimizing manufacturing and deployment costs.

During Phase II, ACT and LU will develop the individual system-level components required for scaling the technology. After demonstrating the operation of these components and sub-systems, an integrated sub-scale test bed will demonstrate system operation across dozens of capture and regeneration cycles. The project team will use the data from these test bed cycles to refine their full-scale system models.

The BIL requests development of a program to help identify and characterize undocumented orphaned wells (UOWs), “conduct research and development activities in cooperation with the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) to assist the Federal land management agencies, States, and Indian Tribes in identifying and characterizing undocumented orphaned wells.” To begin developing this program, the DOE, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and IOGCC, is creating a research consortium that will consist of five national laboratories including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The consortium will leverage institutional knowledge and existing processes, as well as fundamental and applied science expertise, to undertake the primary objectives as defined in the BIL, focusing specifically on undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells. Research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) for this program will be aimed at finding and characterizing UOWs and determining the physical locations, methane emissions, wellbore integrity, and other environmental impacts of those wells so they can be prioritized for plugging and abandoning activities by State and Federal agencies. This program will focus on UOWs in multiple basins and involves private, State, Tribal, and Federal lands. The proposed approach to this program includes (1) enabling collaboration with oil and gas producing states through IOGCC and the DOI Federal agencies to assess technology needs, (2) determining critical barriers and developing necessary technologies (which may vary by region), and (3) testing and demonstrating these new technology solutions in partnership with Federal agencies (e.g., BLM, U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], National Forest Service [NFS], and others) and the oil and gas producing states through the IOGCC and Tribal lands.

The BIL requests development of a program to help identify and characterize undocumented orphaned wells (UOWs), “conduct research and development activities in cooperation with the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) to assist the Federal land management agencies, States, and Indian Tribes in identifying and characterizing undocumented orphaned wells.” To begin developing this program, the DOE, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and IOGCC, is creating a research consortium that will consist of five national laboratories including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The consortium will leverage institutional knowledge and existing processes, as well as fundamental and applied science expertise, to undertake the primary objectives as defined in the BIL, focusing specifically on undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells. Research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) for this program will be aimed at finding and characterizing UOWs and determining the physical locations, methane emissions, wellbore integrity, and other environmental impacts of those wells so they can be prioritized for plugging and abandoning activities by State and Federal agencies. This program will focus on UOWs in multiple basins and involves private, State, Tribal, and Federal lands. The proposed approach to this program includes (1) enabling collaboration with oil and gas producing states through IOGCC and the DOI Federal agencies to assess technology needs, (2) determining critical barriers and developing necessary technologies (which may vary by region), and (3) testing and demonstrating these new technology solutions in partnership with Federal agencies (e.g., BLM, U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], National Forest Service [NFS], and others) and the oil and gas producing states through the IOGCC and Tribal lands.

The BIL requests development of a program to help identify and characterize undocumented orphaned wells (UOWs), “conduct research and development activities in cooperation with the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) to assist the Federal land management agencies, States, and Indian Tribes in identifying and characterizing undocumented orphaned wells.” To begin developing this program, the DOE, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and IOGCC, is creating a research consortium that will consist of five national laboratories including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The consortium will leverage institutional knowledge and existing processes, as well as fundamental and applied science expertise, to undertake the primary objectives as defined in the BIL, focusing specifically on undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells. Research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) for this program will be aimed at finding and characterizing UOWs and determining the physical locations, methane emissions, wellbore integrity, and other environmental impacts of those wells so they can be prioritized for plugging and abandoning activities by State and Federal agencies. This program will focus on UOWs in multiple basins and involves private, State, Tribal, and Federal lands. The proposed approach to this program includes (1) enabling collaboration with oil and gas producing states through IOGCC and the DOI Federal agencies to assess technology needs, (2) determining critical barriers and developing necessary technologies (which may vary by region), and (3) testing and demonstrating these new technology solutions in partnership with Federal agencies (e.g., BLM, U.S. Geological Survey [USGS], National Forest Service [NFS], and others) and the oil and gas producing states through the IOGCC and Tribal lands.

The University of North Dakota (UND) will use the first six months to assess the retrofit repowering options at three existing waste coal-fired plant locations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The purpose of this initial investigation is to provide a quick-reference tool to size different units depending on the feedstock availability and composition. Subsequently, UND will complete two Techno-economic analysis (TEA)s, one for a retrofitted waste coal power plant facility and another for a greenfield waste coal facility. Each of these facilities will include a carbon capture system. A life cycle analysis (LCA) will be conducted jointly with the other tasks to help guide decision making regarding feedstock composition, plant logistics, and critical carbon-related cradle-to-grave considerations.

The University of Utah and Idaho National Laboratory researchers will demonstrate the feasibility of sorption-enhanced biomass gasification for production of hydrogen (H₂)-rich syngas in a dual fluidized bed (DFB) reactor operating under industrially relevant conditions. In this project, waste biomass will be homogenized and prepared to ensure reliable feed to a DFB process development unit (PDU). The PDU will be operated as a conventional DFB gasifier with olivine bed material, then as sorption-enhanced gasification (SEG) by adding limestone to the bed material and, finally, as an oxy-SEG by fluidizing the combustor with an oxygen/carbon dioxide (CO₂) mix. Complementary lab-scale studies will provide rate data that will feed into computational models of the gasifier and overall process. The SEG approach will simplify production of H₂ from biomass and will advance clean hydrogen production technology toward the goal of achieving $1/kg H₂. Specific research objectives include (1) demonstrating that waste biomass can be pre-processed with and without additives to affect SEG, (2) understanding and modeling fundamental processes and chemistry associated with SEG, (3) evaluating SEG performance and syngas quality in a small-scale gasifier over a range of industrially relevant conditions, and (4) demonstrating oxy-SEG to produce separate H₂- and CO₂-rich streams.

GE Research, in collaboration with GE Aviation, University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, and University of Central Florida, will design, fabricate, and demonstrate operation of a rotating detonation combustor (RDC) at 7FA cycle conditions while integrated with upstream and downstream turbomachinery components. The project team will study the integrated system performance when operating over a range of natural gas and hydrogen fuel blends. RDC operation has been extensively studied at low-pressure operating conditions and without the presence of representative inlet and exit engine components. Therefore, the impact on performance and operability of the coupled components that represent the integrated gas turbine system is largely unknown. Furthermore, the performance impact of this coupled system at realistic gas turbine cycle conditions is also not well understood. This project will focus on studying the interactions between the RDC and the inlet air compressor/diffuser components and the interaction between the RDC and the downstream turbine inlet section.

Clarkson University, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Madison, will develop a potentially transformational approach to produce low-cost carbon-neutral hydrogen (H₂) from biomass gasification by using H₂-selective membrane-assisted water-gas shift reactors (MAWGS). In this approach, H₂ is produced from the WGS reaction and simultaneously separated from the mixture gas without undergoing other treatments that remove pollutants and separate it. The key goal for the realization and development of this technology is the synthesis of a reliable H₂-selective membrane material with long-term stability and high permeability and selectivity. For this purpose, ternary alloys of Pd-Ag-Au membranes will be considered due to the unique characteristics of the three metals. In particular, palladium (Pd) is completely selective toward H₂; gold (Au) is resistant to the poisoning contaminants contained in the exhaust gas stream, such as hydrogen sulfide (H₂S); and silver (Ag) increases the permeability and decreases the membrane cost. In this project, several alloys of Pd-Au-Ag deposited on porous support will be synthesized. The alloyed membranes will then be characterized and their performance will be evaluated by carrying out permeation tests with single gases, binary mixtures, and multicomponent mixtures. The alloy(s) showing the highest selectivity and permeability and long-term stability will be scaled-up and tested by using a synthetic exhaust gas feed stream at temperatures and pressures relevant for the stream coming from the gasification plant. Several parameters will be optimized to obtain homogenous, thin, continuous, and stable alloy films on the support. The experimental results will be input into process models and used for the life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis to determine the best option for the location of the MAWGS in the modular gasification process, to understand the environmental impact of the process, and to evaluate the ability of the MAWGS technology to provide a pathway to achieving the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) goal of $1 for 1 kg of produced H₂.

Raytheon Technologies Research Center (RTRC) and project partner University of Connecticut (UConn) will develop and demonstrate an ammonia combustor for power-generating turbines. The project team will generate fundamental and engineering data for ammonia combustion at gas turbine-relevant conditions and apply this learning to tailor existing rich-staged technology for the low-nitrogen oxide (NO_X) combustion of ammonia. The project will culminate in high-pressure, full-temperature testing of a single-injector gas turbine burner using ammonia fuel at RTRC. Ammonia combustion data will be acquired at both RTRC and UConn using well-suited and existing high-pressure flame facilities. RTRC and UConn will also collaborate on developing chemical kinetic understanding from the data for the prediction of ammonia combustor performance and NO_X emissions.

West Virginia University Research Corporation (WVURC) will develop a process intensified two-stage bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) gasifier for hydrogen production from biomass. As shown in the accompanying figure, WVURC will design and build a BFB gasifier system integrated with a membrane separator and pre-combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system with syngas recycle. Additionally, the team will: (1) develop and use a multifunctional catalyst to enhance the reaction rates of biomass reforming, tar cracking, and water gas shift functions, (2) develop the membrane based on carbon molecular sieves (CMS) for hydrogen separation, and (3) design rigorous unit level and plant level process models that will be used to both optimize the process and develop the techno-economic analysis (TEA). The overall goal of the project is to reduce the costs of hydrogen production by developing a modular and highly efficient and intensified gasification system with significantly less equipment items than traditional systems.

The major objectives of this project are to (1) estimate the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of pulverized coal/waste coal-biomass co-firing power plants with deep carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) using liquid solvents for 95−99% CO₂ capture, including the quantification of variability and uncertainty; (2) determine the breakeven co-firing level of biomass required to achieve net-zero GHG emissions and its dependence on key factors on a life cycle basis; and (3) quantify bounding conditions for the techno-economic performance of net-zero power production in deterministic and probabilistic forms.

To achieve these objectives, this project proposes an integrated systems analysis framework that combines techno-economic analysis for CCUS-enabled power production with life cycle analysis and quantifies the variability and uncertainty of net-zero energy production at multiple levels. The proposed modeling framework will be incorporated into the Integrated Environmental Control Model, a power plant modeling tool developed by Carnegie Mellon University in previous research for NETL, as new modules or options.

TDA Research is partnering with Membrane Technology and Research Inc. (MTR) and Schlumberger to develop a transformational polymer sorbent-based microwave assisted thermal swing adsorption (MTSA) process that captures more than 95% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant, recovering CO₂ at 95%. TDA’s system uses a highly stable, high-capacity functionalized mixed matrix polymer (MMP) sorbent that will be manufactured into a structure with well-defined size flow channels to achieve a very low pressure drop through the sorbent bed. The regeneration of the sorbent is carried out using a thermal swing of only 30°C, which allows a short cycle duration and increases sorbent utilization (i.e., achieving a high CO₂ capture per tonne of material per hour, reducing the equipment size and capital cost). The sorbent will be prepared in the form of sheets (laminates) instead of pellets, which also significantly reduces the mass and heat transfer distances, resulting in complete thermal cycling of the sorbent in less than 30 minutes (full-cycle time). The system will also use directed microwave energy to assist with the rapid heating of the bed, reducing the heat requirement. MTR will fabricate the sorbent sheets/laminates in 1-by-1-foot-size, which will then be integrated with a microwave heater. The resulting bench-scale sorbent reactor module will be evaluated at TDA using simulated NGCC flue gas. Schlumberger and GE Gas Power will assist with assessing the technical and commercial viability of the technology for capturing CO₂ from NGCC flue gas.

Raytheon Technologies Research Center (RTRC) and Pratt & Whitney (P&W) will develop a retrofittable combustor module for the FT4000 aeroderivative power generation gas turbine engine to enable efficient operation using hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel source. The FT4000 combustor was developed by P&W, RTRC, and PW Power Systems (PWPS) with core technology from the proven P&W PW4000™ turbo-fan engine. The FT4000 provides efficient, reliable peaking and baseload power with a relatively compact footprint. The overall goal of the project is to develop and test the burner of the FT4000 for 100% hydrogen fuel operation. The project objectives are to:

1. Determine the limits of hydrogen content in natural gas that can be safely fired in the current FT4000 fuel nozzle/burner and identify situations in which the operability and durability of the combustor and fuel nozzle are compromised by issues such as flameholding internal to the fuel nozzle.
2. Conceptualize design elements that either help separate the flame from the burner surface or provide sufficient cooling for full life operation and test the design elements in high-temperature rigs to evaluate their effectiveness.
3. Redesign the FT4000 fuel nozzle/burner for hydrogen fuel such that it fits in the current FT4000 envelope.
4. Test the redesigned fuel nozzle at full engine temperatures and pressures to measure its performance on hydrogen with respect to operability, durability, and nitrogen oxide (NO_X) emissions.

The goal of the project is to prevent negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of coal waste (coal ash and tailings) by developing an aerial robot-enabled inspection and monitoring system of active and abandoned coal ash and tailings storage facilities. The first objective of this project is the development of a programmable drone, equipped with several complementary sensors, that will autonomously inspect several structures of a storage facility. The second objective of this project is to create artificial intelligence-based hazard detection algorithms that will use multispectral and georeferenced images (i.e., thermal and visual) and 3D Point Clouds data collected by an autonomous drone to detect hazards in the storage facility structure that would indicate uncontrolled leakage to the environment or lead to the potential failure of the structure.

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and team members Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), University of Central Florida (UCF) and Combustion Research and Flow Technologies, Inc. (CRAFT Tech) will perform an in-depth evaluation of ammonia as a zero-carbon fuel for power generation. The project goal will be achieved through an iterative physics-, computational-, and experimental approach resulting in the design of two pilot combustors validated through testing conducted under gas turbine conditions. The project objectives are to: 1) Establish the foundational aspects of the physics of combustion of ammonia and ammonia-hydrogen mixtures through literature search, analyses, modeling and experiments under gas turbine operating conditions; 2) Use the resulting modeling reaction kinetics data to establish reduced reaction mechanisms, including nitrogen oxides (NOx) formation, and apply them to update a commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to support the design of one or more prototypic gas turbine combustors; and, 3) Use the anchored code and combustion knowledge to design a scaled up burner and a representative scaled test article system, fabricate and test the article to confirm combustion system performance and emissions, and validate model and emissions estimates.

The University of North Dakota and project partner Envergex LLC will develop a novel process-intensified and modular Combined Hydrogen, Heat, and Power (CH₂P) production technology, targeting commercial scales of 5–10 megawatt-electric (MWe) equivalent. The process technology integrates a novel adaptation of the state-of-the-art steam-iron process to produce high-purity hydrogen (H₂) and a compression-ready carbon dioxide (CO₂) stream from the gasification of biomass and biomass blends, enabling significant progress toward achieving the target cost for clean H₂ of $1/kg.

The process addresses the challenges to small-scale modular H₂ production by:

1. The use of a novel, iron-based material with multi-functionality (oxygen carrier material [OCM]) that combines syngas purification, H₂ production, and CO₂ separation (process intensification).
2. Adopting a commercially available, low-cost, modular bed gasification system patented by Singularity Energy Technologies and known as the Sandwich™ Gasifier, specifically designed for variable quality feedstocks.
3. Tightly integrating the gasification process and synthesis gas conversion process for a feed conversion rate of 25–50 tonnes/day.

The Research Foundation for State University of New York (SUNY) on behalf of University at Buffalo will develop a process-intensified gasification system for economically viable, modular hydrogen (H₂) production from waste biomass using catalytic membrane reactors (CMR) based on carbon molecular sieve (CMS) hollow fiber membranes (HFMs). Specifically, the CMR will be developed to selectively remove H₂ during the high-temperature water-gas shift (WGS) reaction to circumvent thermodynamic limitations on the conversion of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide (CO₂) and H₂. Technical objectives include: (1) developing high-performance CMRs based on thermally stable, processible polymer-derived CMS membranes, (2) designing and preparing new multicomponent CO2-tolerant nano-catalysts for WGS reaction using a unique flame-based aerosol process , (3) developing CMR and HFM models, and (4) producing a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the biomass gasification process incorporating the membrane reactor technology. The endpoint of the program will be a 200-hour continuous test of the optimized CMRs for achieving high CO conversion at high temperatures and a roadmap for technology demonstration, deployment, and commercialization.

The project’s purpose is to determine how well the use of hybrid heating (gas and electric) technologies in multifamily and single-family households enables reduced gas system peak-hour and peak-day usage to alleviate gas system constraints. Using a hybrid heating approach, National Grid will seek to overcome customer comfort and safety barriers that normally occur when curtailing gas demand during extreme cold events. The proposed pilot expands upon the existing successful gas demand response programs (“DR” or “gas DR”) National Grid operates, using electric heating technology to expand the market potential of gas DR. The project will test two representative technologies — window units and radiator covers — and integrate them with advanced/smart control systems to validate the utility of gas DR programs.

Washington University in St. Louis, in collaboration with Skyre Inc., will develop and demonstrate an innovative electrochemical hydrogen pump (EHP) technology that will significantly reduce the costs of clean hydrogen production, specifically from small-scale (5–50 MW) biomass gasification units. This cost reduction will be achieved through substantial process intensification by combining two energy-intensive process steps, namely hydrogen purification and compression, into a single step, and by replacing inefficient and scale-driven purification and compression units with a single modular electrochemical purifier/pump. The EHP utilizes a very small amount of electricity, theoretically on the order of 1 kWh/kg hydrogen (H₂), to simultaneously treat product gas from a standard water-gas shift reactor and selectively pump pure H₂ through an electrochemical cell to achieve high-purity (99.99%) and high-pressure (800 bar) H₂ for subsequent storage/utilization or pipeline injection. This results in substantial energy savings as compared to mechanical compression and traditional purification systems. The modular nature of these electrochemical cells enables utilization at similar efficiency at any gasification unit scale. The specific project objectives are to: (1) design, develop, and test critical custom EHP components for specific application to high-purity and high-pressure H₂ synthesis from biomass gasifier product gas; (2) demonstrate the optimal operation of a laboratory-scale EHP unit with 82 cm² cells and up to 10 cells in a stack to produce purified and compressed H₂ from a synthetic gasifier product gas, thereby advancing the technology from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 to TRL 4; and (3) perform a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to quantify the potential cost savings associated with EHP implementation and make progress toward the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrogen Energy Earthshot goal of $1/kg H₂.

This project will quantitatively assess legacy coal mine sites in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and develop reclamation strategies for waste coal and biomass development with best management practices to reduce GHG emissions and achieve a regional decarbonized economy. Methods will include geospatial data analytics, machine-learning (ML)-assisted coal refuse pile estimation, and integrated ML-based techno-economic assessment (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). Outcomes include identification of the characteristics of legacy coal mine sites, strategies and best management practices of biomass development on legacy mined lands, a robust database and models of LCA for biomass development and the utilization of legacy mine waste materials, and integrated LCA and TEA data and impacts of the net-zero or net-negative pathways of biomass development and waste coal utilization.

The project objectives are to integrate satellite remote sensing, machine learning and image processing, geological engineering models, and soil science and plant pathology to: 1) identify potential leaching of metals from coal ash impoundments (Phase I), and 2) propose locally adaptable phytoextraction approaches to remediate contaminated regions (Phase II). The analyses will consider potentially contaminated areas surrounding coal combustion product impoundments of southern West Virginia, south-west Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and North Carolina. The project will develop a locally adapted phytoremediation design including a database of phytoremediation potential of different hyperaccumulating plants, an environmental justice screening to prioritize areas with high environmental justice impact, and a machine learning informed model that outputs a ranked list of suggested plant species for each candidate site.

The overall objective of this project is to develop a modeling framework and identify the scenarios with net-zero or net-negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lower levelized cost of energy production (LCOE) for a waste coal and switchgrass co-fired power plant equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Ohio River Valley.

The overall goal of this project is to combine experimental algal cultures with predictive quantum calculations to evaluate system-level Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) uptake and conversion efficiency of cellulose-producing Nannochloropsis species (sp.) algae. UCR will optimize Nannochloropsis salina (N. salina) cultures on effluent gas produced directly from cellulosic ethanol fermentation, characterize the fermentation products, quantify cellulose production, and calculate CO₂ uptake efficiency with predictive quantum calculations. UCR will conduct a life cycle and techno-economic analysis of the proposed integration informed by the results of testing.

University of Utah researchers will demonstrate the technical feasibility of gasifying blends of biomass and high-volume waste materials to produce hydrogen and improve feedstock preparation and feeding to enhance gasifier performance and conversion. During this project, various slurried mixtures of coal, biomass liquid, and waste plastic oil will be prepared and gasified in a 1-ton/day pressurized, oxygen-blown entrained-flow gasifier to characterize the influence of operating conditions on reactor performance, carbon conversion, and syngas quality. Special attention will be given to the biomass and plastic liquefaction processes to minimize energy input, maximize product yield, and expand the range of usable waste materials to include agricultural waste. A new flexible fuel gasifier burner based on proven hot oxygen burner technology will be developed that will allow liquid slurries and gaseous feedstocks to be fed individually or in combination. Impurities in the syngas will be measured, and the suitability of the syngas for hydrogen production via water-gas shift will be evaluated. Specific objectives are to (1) develop customized bioliquids and plastic oils for gasifier feed; (2) create stable, pumpable slurries that maximize the concentration of waste materials; (3) design a second-generation hot oxygen burner to improve performance and fuel flexibility; and (4) acquire industrially relevant performance data for pressurized, oxygen-blown entrained-flow gasification of slurried blends of biomass and waste materials.

The overall objective of this project is to significantly improve the temperature performance by at least 150° C of ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials in high-hydrogen environments using field assisted sintering technology (FAST). FAST is a relatively new material synthesis technology that allows for novel materials to be processed at significantly shorter fabrication times by using high-density electrical currents to drive rapid, high-intensity heating.

The project objective will be achieved by the following methodology. FAST-derived CMCs in conjunction with advanced ceramic coatings will be developed to adapt to higher-temperature combustion with higher-humidity contents as a result of the high-hydrogen fuel. The fabricated samples will be tested at a range of combustor operating conditions with up to 100% hydrogen fuel to understand the impact of different CMC formulations and combustion gas environments on the material performance.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), in collaboration with the University of Kentucky (UKy), Bechtel, and Vogt Power, will conduct a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for UKy’s solvent-agnostic, low-cost carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture process retrofitted to Louisville Gas & Electric Kentucky Utilities (LG&E-KU) Cane Run #7 (CR7), a commercially operating natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power generation unit. The process will capture approximately 1,700,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year at a greater than 95% capture rate, suitable for permanent geologic CO₂ storage along the Ohio River corridor. The CR7 unit is representative of power plants in the Midwest and Midsouth, where intermittent renewable power and geographical storage for CO₂ is limited. Although UKy’s CO₂ capture process is solvent-agnostic, an optimized aqueous amine solvent developed by UKy will be considered for this study.

This collaborative project aims to understand the utilization of algal biomass produced from a wastewater treatment facility as fertilizer for cotton plant growth by conducting experimental trials in a greenhouse environment and field trials in test plots. Algae growth conditions will be optimized using a bench top revolving algal biofilm (RAB) reactor system in the lab, and algal biomass pellets obtained from the RAB pilot plant will be used for cotton growth trials in the test plots for two consecutive years. The project objectives include: (1) optimizing the conditions to maximize the carbon dioxide (CO₂) uptake by algae in wastewater when bubbling simulated flue gas using an RAB reactor system; (2) using different spectroscopy and advanced imaging techniques to measure the carbon uptake and composition of algal biomass; (3) evaluating the algal biomass as biofertilizer for cotton plant growth under normal conditions to reduce carbon footprint; (4) conducting cotton plant growth trials in test plots using varying amounts of algal biomass; and (5) evaluating the environmental and economic benefits of utilizing algal biomass as fertilizer by performing life cycle and techno-economic analyses.

The objective of the work by Florida A&M University is to utilize algal- and cyanobacterial-based phycotechnologies to address pervasive heavy metal contamination from coal combustion product (CCP) impoundments at the Savannah River Site. Novel bioindicators will be developed to gauge the potential for phytoremediation to restore legacy impoundment sites. This will be achieved by conducting an environmental diagnostic assessment of ash pond sites, using metagenomics to identify taxonomic composition and gene functions of algal communities in sites with heavy metal contamination, developing an environmental health index of ash pond sites to predict the success of remediation strategies, isolating algal-cyanobacterial taxa and screening them against heavy metals to confirm heavy metal resistance and/or hyperaccumulation, and populating artificial intelligence models to develop an iterative remediation strategy.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), with partners HY-TEK Bio, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Argonne National Lab (ANL) is engineering microalgal polycultures through a photosynthesis-driven process to capture and sequester Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) from power plant flue gases in the form of algae biomass and Calcium Carbonate (CaCO₃) precipitates. Work includes laboratory development of algal cultivation systems with injection of micro- or nano-bubbles to improve CO₂ mass transfer and sequestration, optimization of algal culture microbiome and the biocementation process, pilot-scale testing of the algal carbon sequestration system at the partnering power plant and development of Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) models to evaluate and guide research and testing activities and explore the potential of algae CO₂ capture and utilization systems.

The objective is to develop a mine-scale tool that can be used to screen mines and other geologic deposits for potential viability as rare earth element (REE) and critical mineral (CM) mines. Machine learning techniques will be used in combination with existing and newly collected data from the Wyodak Mine to develop this screening tool. While developed with data from Wyodak, the tool will be site-agnostic and enable users to identify whether or not a mine has economic potential for mining REE/CM and to identify regions within the mine with a high probability of economic viability.

Characterization of rare earth elements and critical minerals (REE-CM) in unconventional and secondary sources is a complex task that needs to overcome the challenges of detecting low and variable concentrations and the uniqueness of every source material deposit in terms of composition, host material, and disposal environment. As in traditional mineral prospecting, delineation of REE-CM "hot zones" is critical for assessing the economic viability of these sources. Here, hot zone is defined as a spatially delineated volume of high REE-CM concentrations within the tailing deposits. The project will develop and field demonstrate a machine learning (ML)-aided multi-physics approach for rapid identification and characterization of REE-CM hot zones in mine tailings with a focus on coal and sulfide mine tailings or other processing or utilization byproducts, such as fly ash and refuse deposits.

MicroBio Engineering Inc. has teamed up with New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, California Polytechnic State University, Heliae Development, LLC, and Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop and demonstrate innovative technologies for increasing the Carbon Utilization Efficiency (CUE) in microalgae cultivation, through innovative CO2 delivery and cultivation strategies. This will be coupled with the selection of high productivity microalgae strains for economic and sustainable production of crop biostimulants and other bioproducts for regenerative agriculture. The project objectives are to increase CUE to near 70% and to create novel non-GMO algal strains of the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus that achieve biomass productivity of 25 g ash-free-dry-weight (AFDW)/m2-day of biomass required for commercial viability. Techno-economic analyses and life cycle assessments (TEA/LCA) studies will model the process for algae biomass production, to provide a trajectory to meet the market requirements for production scale-up of biostimulants. This project will utilize CO2 from the flue gas produced at a wastewater treatment plant for power generation by combustion of biogas.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Prairie Research Institute and Covanta Corporation will design, build, and operate a pilot-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system at a Covanta waste-to-energy (WTE) facility that combusts municipal solid waste (MSW) to generate steam for the City of Indianapolis. The University of Illinois' transformational biphasic solvent-based CO₂ absorption process (BiCAP) technology was previously tested at a 0.7 tonne CO₂/day scale on coal-derived flue gas at the Abbott Power Plant located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. In this project, the technology will be scaled up to capture 2.5 tonnes CO₂/day from combustion flue gas at the WTE facility, and the pilot unit will be designed to maintain a capture efficiency of ≥ 95% and produce CO₂ with ≥ 95% purity. The project will assess the economic and environmental performance of the technology and the potential net-negative CO₂ emissions associated with energy production from burning MSW when carbon capture is incorporated. The impact of the project on environmental justice and the regional economy will be analyzed, and a workforce readiness plan will be developed.

This project will develop a cutting-edge CO₂ electrolyzer technology to capture flue-gas from fossil fueled point source emitters, ultimately converting the CO₂ into stable formic acid. This formic acid will then be delivered in a pH dependent manner into algal ponds as a carbon source for algal growth enabled by photosynthesis, notably increasing carbon utilization efficiency due to the high solubility and stable nature of formic acid and minimal potential for off-gassing. The biomass will subsequently be turned into novel high-value, high-volume products.

Plant species thriving at Coal Combustion Products (CCP) impoundment sites are robust indicators of vegetation types that should be examined for large-scale site restoration and recovery management and have the potential to serve as indicators of the composition of contaminated soils and groundwater. In this work, plant species will be physically identified and mapped to determine the relationship of naturally occurring hyperaccumulator plant species to contaminants in soils which will help to develop a baseline that can be used for monitoring changes. Identifying which plant communities thrive while exhibiting selective uptake of heavy metals at field sites is the primary goal for developing a restoration methodology that includes monitoring with a combination of sampling and remote sensing. Kentucky State University aims to increase knowledge about the growth dynamics, suitability, restoration benefits, and appropriate monitoring metrics to assess the potential impacts of hyperaccumulators.

The overall objective of this project is to develop a silicon carbide (SiC) fiber/SiC ceramic matrix composite (CMC) with enhanced water resistance for future hydrogen turbine engine hot section applications at temperatures of 2700 deg F. The project will focus on a pair of materials innovations to raise the CMC temperature capability and mitigate the increased corrosion/oxidation effects of a high-water-vapor combustion environment. These innovations include introducing a new polycrystalline SiC fiber and a dual interface layer to mitigate the effects of H₂O ingress through matrix cracks and the resulting corrosion at the fiber and interfacial region. Data will be obtained to identify the oxidation mechanisms and kinetics of the interface corrosion to expand current oxidation models and calibrate and validate oxidation-coupled damage mechanics models for hydrogen combustion.

The overarching goal of the project is to mitigate the environmental burdens associated with coal combustion products (CCPs) ponds at the North Valmy power plant by finding native plants and establishing a vegetation cover to phytoextract the toxic heavy metals from ponds and phytostabilize the ultrafine particles of residues. Therefore, developing a sustainable technology to remediate such affected sites is the primary goal of this proposed study.

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and their sub-recipient University at Buffalo (UB) are developing a transformational membrane process for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture from natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants. The objectives of this project are to: (1) develop a transformational membrane technology capturing CO₂ with 97% or greater efficiency from NGCC flue gas; and (2) demonstrate significant progress toward a 40% reduction in the cost of CO₂ capture versus a reference NGCC power plant for the same carbon capture efficiency.

The primary objective of the project is to continue successful use and development of a Risk-Based Data Management System (RBDMS), which is a well-established system that is utilized by 30 state agencies to track oil and natural gas well histories, brine disposal, production, enhanced recovery, permitting/reporting, and other operations to facilitate the development of energy resources. This project will support the expansion of FracFocus and RBDMS for improved public access to oil and natural gas related regulatory data and optimally process electronic permits by state agencies.

The specific goals of the proposed activity are to:

• Continue to evolve RBDMS to provide solutions that enable state regulatory programs to manage mission critical activities and responsibilities on matters such as permitting, drilling and completion, production, plugging and abandonment, orphan well identification, inspection and compliance, and environmental protection.
• Improve public access to state oil and natural gas regulatory data.
• Provide additional support to state regulatory agencies through the State Oil and Gas Regulatory Exchange (SOGRE) and States First initiatives.
• Support electronic permitting and reporting for improved accuracy, efficiency and reduced processing time.
• Provide training and support for state personnel and operators on new RBDMS modules and improved FracFocus 3.2 capabilities.
• Provide additional reports on produced water and other state collaborative efforts.
• Support states in development/planning for the RBDMS/web cloud including new or upgraded modules for natural gas storage and pipeline data management.
• Support the expansion of a Regional Induced Seismicity Collaborative (RISC) to address the issue of induced seismicity (associated with produced water injection) in the southern midcontinent of the United States to integrate approaches, share research and data, and potentially cooperate on projects.

Dastur International Inc., in collaboration with Air Liquide Large Industries US LP and Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions US Inc., will perform a front-end-engineering design (FEED) study for a commercial-scale carbon capture system (CCS) that separates 95% of the total carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with at least 95% purity from an existing steam methane reformer (SMR) facility in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The carbon capture system is Air Liquide’s proprietary Cryocap^TM Flue Gases (FG) process. The integration of the Cryocap FG technology to the existing SMR would enable CO₂ capture of 900,000 metric tons per year, with a net carbon capture rate of greater than 95% and with minimum impact on the levelized cost of hydrogen produced at 99.97% purity. It is expected that the captured CO₂ would be transported and stored in a nearby geologic formation, as the surrounding region is well known to be highly suitable for long-duration, high-security storage of CO₂ in deep saline formations.

The overall project objective is to develop a process to assess landfill contents and design a process to extract and separate aluminum. Social science analysis of the landfill history and surrounding community will be key to selecting a landfill pilot with a high probability of being viable economically, environmentally, and within the community. Environmental impacts will be identified and quantified for the prospective landfill sites. Separation techniques will be evaluated and a pilot-scale test apparatus for aluminum separation will be built. Finally, the details of aluminum recovery will be developed to optimize recovered aluminum quality by casting high quality ingots for characterization.

In this project, Colorado State University (CSU), located in Fort Collins, CO, will demonstrate, characterize, and optimize a biorefinery process for converting a utility source of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to high-value bioproducts (ink and carbon nanofiber supercapacitor electrodes) via algal cultivation. The project objectives include developing efficient CO₂ transfer to algal cultivations, developing strains and operations for algal cultivation from flue gas, developing and optimizing algal biomass conversion to products, and conducting a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and a life cycle assessment (LCA). There are two budget periods (BPs) in this project. Living Ink Technologies, University of Wyoming, and Wyoming Integrated Test Center (WITC; Host Site) are the project partners. CSU, responsible for the overall project management, will conduct algal cultivations in the laboratories at CSU and WITC. Living Ink Technologies will refine methods for producing ink from the solid fraction of algal biomass pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction and will characterize the produced inks. The University of Wyoming will conduct research on separation of water from the liquid product of algal biomass pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction.

RTI International, with CEMEX Inc., Schlumberger, and KBR Inc., will perform a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture from the CEMEX Balcones Cement Plant flue gas in New Braunfels, TX. The project will utilize RTI’s non-aqueous solvent (NAS) capture technology. The specific goal of the project is to complete the FEED study of an integrated 1.6 million tonnes-CO₂/yr capture system with 95% capture efficiency at CEMEX’s cement plant. The results of the FEED study will enable better understanding of the capital costs and cost of CO₂ capture of the commercial-scale system from an Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) Class 3 estimate.

Electricore and partner Air Liquide will complete a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a commercial-scale advanced carbon capture system that would separate carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from an existing steam methane reforming (SMR) facility in South Texas. The proposed carbon capture system is a combination of Air Liquide’s Cryocap^TM hydrogen (H₂) technology and a solvent-based post-combustion technology system. The capture system will have a net-carbon capture efficiency of greater than 95% and a minimum impact on the levelized cost of H₂ produced at a minimum of 99.97% purity. The FEED study will include the design and optimization of the proposed plant and several environmental, technical, and cost assessments.

This project will work to design, demonstrate, and test a novel process-intensified modular system with techno-economic feasibility which integrates an electrocatalyst with electrochemical membrane reactors for natural gas (NG) upgrading to value-added liquid chemicals (aromatics) and power generation simultaneously. Different aspects of the design have already been tested and validated under various operating conditions. The NG conversion and aromatics yield can be significantly improved by the enhanced reaction kinetics by electrochemically utilizing the hydrogen product for electricity generation. The proposed modular system aims to achieve NG conversion of >30%, aromatics yield of >50% increase, and >90% reduction in CO₂ emissions.

The objective of this project is to develop an innovative thermal barrier coating consisting of hetero-multilayers of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and alpha-phase alumina with the desired thermal, mechanical and ionic conduction properties to enable an additional 150^oC - 200^oC of temperature capability beyond the current ceramic matrix composites (CMC) technology. The proof of concept of the mulltilayered thermal barrier coating technologies will be demonstrated. Specifically, a co-design model for thermal, mechanical and ionic transport properties in the multilayered coating will be developed. The multilayered thermal barrier coating will be manufactured and its structure and properties will be characterized. In addition, the initial tech-to-market analysis will be performed.

This project will perform an engineering design and economic analysis study of the conversion of associated gas in the Bakken to high value carbon black and hydrogen, using the Microwave Plasma Pyrolysis (MPP) process developed by H Quest Vanguard, Inc (HQV). A multi-well pad producing oil and associated gas in the Bakken / Three Forks shale play will be selected as the basis of the design study.

The MPP process is a proprietary, novel, modular and energy efficient chemical conversion technology enabled by microwave plasma. The scalable microwave plasma reactor concept enables rapid, continuous, direct (single-step) conversion of methane and higher hydrocarbons to hydrogen and high-value carbons, with control over product selectivity, across a wide range of feed compositions and energy inputs.

The project will combine experimental testing, process modeling, economic and environmental analysis to significantly de-risk the economics of deploying the MPP process at well pads within the Bakken region by quantifying the financial and economic benefits of the process for a representative well site operator or owner.

The proposed project aims to contribute to the scalability, yield, rate, and cost of manufacturing the newest class of structural materials for high-temperature applications. Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are in ever-increasing demand to elevate performance and efficiency, which will enable next-generation innovations for industrial gas turbines, heat exchangers, aero engines, space reentry vehicles, and nuclear fission and fusion reactors. Chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) deposits a highly stoichiometric silicon carbide (SiC) matrix material for structural CMCs that can operate at temperatures > 1450 °C. However, the current state-of-the-art isothermal/isobaric CVI (ICVI) process used for manufacturing CMC components today is expensive.

Previous work at ORNL resulted in the development of a process termed forced-flow, thermal-gradient CVI (FCVI), which demonstrated a reduction in processing time by an order of magnitude and a practical increase in CMC thickness. FCVI is being used to densify carbon/silicon carbide (C/SiC) aircraft brakes, but to date its use has been limited to simple flat puck and disk configurations using machined hot and cold graphite mandrels. This project will design and fabricate a new FCVI reactor and employ complex-shaped mandrels fabricated by additive manufacturing of carbon preforms with subsequent pyrolysis and graphitization. This project will demonstrate FCVI to deposit SiC on a curved component shape.

The University of Illinois, in partnership with Air Liquide, Visage Energy Corporation, Hatch Associates Consultants Inc., Midrex Technologies Inc., ArcelorMittal, and voestalpine Texas LLC, will complete a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study for retrofitting an ironmaking plant with carbon capture technology. The design will employ Air Liquide’s pressure swing adsorption-assisted Cryocap™ technology to capture 95% of the total carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions at the ArcelorMittal Texas Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) facility, which emits approximately 1 million tonnes of CO₂ per year. In addition to developing a detailed engineering design package, the team will complete analyses of the capital and operating costs, business case, life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, environmental health and safety risks, environmental justice, and economic revitalization and job creation outcomes of implementing the project.

This project will advance an integrated open raceway algae cultivation and processing system with carbon capture and utilization (CCU) from the flue gas of a naphtha-fired power plant for the production of spirulina as an aquaculture feed ingredient. The objectives are to (1) increase the annual spirulina productivity to at least 20 g/m²/day with a carbon utilization efficiency of 90% and carbon capture efficiency of 70% for a 30-day field trial; (2) validate the net decrease in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions; (3) optimize cultivation parameters to account for weather and growth dynamics; (4) produce spirulina powder using low-harvest energy processes; (5) validate the selling price of the spirulina product as a protein-rich aquaculture feed ingredient through testing with rainbow trout; and (6) utilize the data from cultivation and rainbow trout testing to accurately quantify the economic and environmental benefits of the target products through techno-economic analyses (TEAs) and life cycle analyses (LCAs).

The Research Triangle Institute (RTI), in partnership with Creare and GE Research, will design, build, and test an integrated bench-scale contactor process for continuous direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) under actual DAC conditions. This contactor is optimized for wind-driven operation and incorporates RTI’s high-performance, high-durability amine sorbents, as well as Creare’s hybrid additive manufacturing (H-AM) technology, to produce high-performance, compact heat and mass exchange structures at low cost using methods that are ideally suited for integration with sorbent materials.

In Budget Period 1 (BP1), the team will perform, in parallel, two major activities: (1) sorbent scale-up up to 10 kg and coating formulations optimization, and (2) wind-driven contactor performance modeling to aid in the design of key physical parameters of the contactor units, as well as operational parameters for the bench-scale system.

In BP2, the team will fabricate and commission a wind-driven bench-scale contactor system to extract CO₂ from the atmosphere through absorption and desorption cycles.

In BP3, the team will conduct parametric and long-term testing to ensure controlled test conditions over a long period of time, as well as perform a detailed techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis using all experimental data collected during the project.

In addition, the team will also conduct activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The team will foster objectives and actions for community benefit, such as an inclusive environment; supporting people from underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); advancing equity; and encouraging the inclusion of individuals from these groups in the project.

The project is evaluating waste residues/waste by-products from various industries for applicability to creating value-added products through carbon dioxide (CO₂) mineralization (CO₂M). The project will apply the CO₂M technology to several waste residues from local industry that broadly represent heavy industries that are widespread throughout the nation. The results of these laboratory experiments will be used to develop a database and toolset to aid in locating and evaluating potential industrial residues that can create value-added products using the CO₂M technology.

The University of Kentucky Research Foundation, in partnership with EPRI, will develop a 5kg/hour carbon dioxide (CO₂) direct air capture (DAC) process. Three objectives are targeted, including (1) the scale-up of an electrochemical reactor (ER) to simultaneously produce hydrogen (H₂) and CO₂ at a low electric potential of less than 3 volts with collaboration from a commercial water electrolyzer developer; (2) the design and construction of an open-tower absorber for low gas pressure drop, including a spray section with a multifunctional mist eliminator to provide reaction surface area for CO₂ capture, while minimizing the liquid droplet loss; and (3) reducing the energy consumption for CO₂ release by 50% by immobilizing a catalyst on the absorber demister to enhance bicarbonate formation and total CO₂ loading in the solvent. In Budget Period 1 (BP1), the team will design and test the Hybrid Absorber (HA) and ER. In BP2, the team will focus on scale-up, modulation, startup, and commissioning. 5). In BP3, the team will focus on parametric and long-term testing with a focus on CO₂ capture efficiency from greater than 1,000 CFM air, gaseous pressure drop, gas-liquid contact effectiveness, and energy requirement coupled with the performance of the ER targeting minimizing the power requirement, along with data collection to support techno-economic assessment (TEA), life cycle assessment (LCA), and environmental health and safety (EH&S) assessment.

The overall objectives of this project are to identify the optimum processes to maximize carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration, enhance the efficiency of carbon mineralization, improve the technology readiness of carbon mineralization, and build and advance the required industrial waste concrete base. This project is based on preliminary research done by the University of Nebraska- Lincoln that determined that the physical, mechanical, and durability properties of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) could be significantly improved after the carbonation reaction with CO₂ in the project team's specially designed small- and large-scale reaction chambers.

This project is determining whether the submerged flanks of extinct Hawaiian volcanoes can be used to effectively mineralize captured anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂), thereby mitigating the increase of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Although subsurface storage of supercritical CO₂ has been extensively researched, sequestration in basalt has the advantage of converting CO₂ to immobile carbonate minerals within decades to centuries. The ultimate outcome of this project will be a quantitative assessment of the value of subsurface basalts as a permanent sequestration option and a model that will allow for extrapolation of these results to other parts of Hawai’i and to many other basalt terranes.

The overall objective of this work is to characterize and document the volumetric extent, mineralogy, critical mineral content, petrophysical characteristics, and reaction rates of subsurface mafic and ultramafic rocks within the United States (U.S.), where large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can be stored as carbonate minerals via carbonation reactions. Previous studies on magnesium-silicate bedrock have focused on surface mapping, where temperature and pressure conditions are suboptimal for sequestration of large volumes of CO₂. Thus, this project focuses on subsurface mapping and characterization of different rock types where in-situ CO₂ injection and sequestration can be conducted. To determine the sites with the highest potential for safe, permanent CO₂ storage, this project is conducting a source-to-sink assessment.

The project objective is to create and disseminate a Mafic Materials Resource Inventory (MMRI) for Arizona and couple this inventory with a systems design analysis that will produce a Direct Air Capture (DAC) to CO₂ Mineralization (DACM) model for industry use. The project team will combine existing physical, chemical, and hydrologic data for young, surficial scoria deposits with new geologic mapping, sample collection, physical and geochemical analyses, volumetric estimations, and mineral carbonation rates, to populate an ArcGIS geodatabase of mafic materials in four volcanic fields across geologically unique regions of Arizona. Specimens will be processed and reacted using a one-step aqueous mineralization approach with simulated saline water resources at variable water loads to benchmark against mafic silicate and alumina-silicate materials assessed elsewhere. The DACM model is a deliverable of the project and will include a technoeconomic analysis and life-cycle analysis of using DAC to mineralize CO₂ in scoria ex-situ.

Susteon Inc. will conduct bench-scale research and development to advance a novel high-capacity structured sorbent comprising of a highly dispersed sorbent with a low-pressure drop substrate for direct air capture (DAC). The project team will test and select materials and form factors of the structured substrates to support the DAC sorbent. Structured substrate will be selected to provide a high surface area for loading sorbent while minimizing pressure drop, energy loss, and increased mass transfer rates. The team will perform sorbent optimization, preparation, testing and characterization to achieve a highly dispersed sorbent with maximum capacity, adsorption rate and adsorbent stability under process conditions that yield rapid carbon dioxide adsorption rate, high CO₂ capacity, and low desorption energy. The team will design and fabricate a system for bench-scale testing that can operate full process cycles under various adsorption and desorption conditions. Process data will be used for constructing and validating a process model, which in turn will be used to develop process design, obtain process heat and material balances, determine optimal sizing of process equipment, perform techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LEA) and to estimate overall process efficiency.

The objective of the project is to develop a revolutionary process for producing a carbon-negative alternative cement from carbon dioxide (CO₂) and solid waste for the production of precast concrete units. The project will (1) develop an innovative and economical process for mineralizing CO₂ and (2) deliver a laboratory-scale, prototype system capable of converting 10 kg of CO₂ per day for making precast concrete units. In this process, oxalic acid is synthesized using CO₂ from point sources (e.g., fossil fuel-fired power plants, steel mills, and cement plants) via energy-efficient electroreduction. Oxalic acid is then co-milled with industrial solid wastes (e.g., steel slag) to produce the alternative cement, named oxalate cement (OxCem). OxCem can then be used in the same way as portland cement—the most common type of cement in the world—for making concrete.

Susteon Inc will conduct integrated bench-scale testing on a novel structured sorbent system with integrated electrical heating for regeneration on a low-pressure drop substrate for direct air capture (DAC). Previous work (FE0032118) demonstrated that the sorbent technology exhibits rapid carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, high dynamic capacity under DAC conditions, excellent regenerability, and sustained multicycle performance with no degradation observed. The project team will conduct synthesis of structured sorbent, finalize the design and commission of the integrated bench-scale DAC prototype system, perform extended parametric operation using ambient air from the real, outdoor environment under multiple weather conditions, as well as transient operation of prototype system under startup, shutdown, and trip recovery conditions. The existing process model, techno-economic analysis (TEA), and life cycle analysis (LCA) will be updated based on the prototype operation. Sorbent synthesis will focus on scaling the current structured sorbent to produce the necessary amounts of structured material assemblies (SMAs) with target performance. The integrated bench-scale prototype design will focus on validating sustained CO₂ productivity, CO₂ purity, and energy required for regeneration.

The proposed effort seeks to demonstrate a 300 kW_th pilot-scale fluidized-bed co-gasifier for municipal solid waste (MSW) and biomass. The project will investigate the interrelation between gasifier operating conditions (pressure, temperature, gasifying agent, residence time) and feedstock parameters (feedstock constituents, blending ratio, moisture content, particle size) to improve hydrogen production, syngas quality, and efficiency. The research team will conduct a techno-economic analysis and a life-cycle analysis. Subsequent optimization will consider multiple parameters including feedstock variables and post-gasification processes including carbon capture and storage. Comparison with other gasification processes for MSW will determine the economic feasibility and the carbon footprint reduction capabilities of a commercial-scale project.

Adoption of new technologies intended to combat climate change requires persuasive messaging and a communications strategy intended to educate policy makers and community members about the benefits. Engineering students working on developing and testing these new gasification technologies will work with UTEP’s Sam Donaldson Center for Communications Studies on messaging centered around the advantages of adopting co-gasification technologies that recycle MSW and biomass for use in hydrogen production.

The University of Alabama (UA) and partners at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK), Sutterlin Technologies LLC, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will test a lab-scale bio-regulated carbon dioxide (CO₂) mineralization system (BioCarb) that converts calcium-rich, alkaline industrial wastes into carbon-negative supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and permanently stores CO₂ in the produced SCMs. The project team will use biomolecule additives extracted from agricultural wastes to pretreat alkaline industrial wastes to improve CO₂ conversion rates. The carbonation process will be carried out on the pretreated wastes to determine the optimal operation parameters. The project team will systematically characterize the produced carbonated wastes and evaluate the relationship between the mix design and the properties of the concrete made with the BioCarb-produced SCMs. A lab-scale reactor prototype will be designed, built, and tested at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC). Life cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) will be carried out to estimate the CO₂ emissions and commercial potential of the produced SCMs.

In this project, Ohio University and its partners will develop an electrochemistry-enabled carbon dioxide mineralization (e-CO₂M) process to generate carbon-negative alkaline carbonate (AC) materials from natural brines for building, construction, and related applications. This project will analyze the application of chlor-alkali (CA) electrolyzer technology to optimize AC production rates, capacity, and efficiency from industrial and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) sources and natural brines. The project goals include (1) studying e-CO₂M process phenomena kinetics and the effect of operating parameters on AC recovery, (2) characterizing commercially available and e-CO₂M AC products, (3) evaluating corrosion of cathode materials, and (4) conducting initial techno-economic analyses (TEAs) and life cycle analyses (LCAs). At the end of the project, the e-CO₂M process will be integrated into a continuously operating lab-scale system converting 0.5 kg/hr CO₂ from simulated industrial point and atmospheric sources, generating AC materials with lower embodied carbon emissions and equivalent sales price to commercial AC materials.

Tennessee Technological University (TTU), partnering with Tennessee State University (TSU), Copperweld Bimetallics LLC, and Eastern Plating LLC, will focus on the optimization of the spray deposition process for the synthesis of high-performance copper-matrix nanocomposites with uniformly distributed graphene particulates. To control the amount of graphene and achieve a uniform distribution of graphene in the nanocomposites, the team will systematically investigate several key atomizing parameters for a better understanding of their synergistic effects on the microstructural development in the processed nanocomposite. Additional strategies will be implemented to improve the interfacial bonding between copper and graphene and the alignment of graphene in the resultant material. The team will also conduct a techno-economic analysis to demonstrate the viability and cost-effectiveness of the proposed nanocomposite manufacturing process.

The objectives of this project are to (1) implement and evaluate the Veritas protocols to create a measurement-based inventory at Chesapeake (CHK) facilities in the Haynesville through the reconciliation of bottom-up (calculated) estimates of methane emissions with top-down (measured) estimates from aerial surveys and continuous monitors (CMs); (2) extrapolate the reconciled measurement-informed total methane emissions estimate for the Chesapeake assets in the Haynesville developed in objective 1 across the Haynesville basin by performing broader basin aerial measurements; and (3) compare the developed measurement-informed Haynesville methane inventory estimate to estimates in other oil and gas producing basins.

The project team will implement the Veritas protocols and obtain methane emissions measurements across spatial and temporal scales to reconcile with bottom-up methane emissions estimates at Chesapeake natural gas production facilities in the Haynesville basin over the three-year project period. The Veritas protocols are a framework for developing a measurement-informed methane emissions inventory. The framework provides guidance for developing a measurement campaign (measurement protocols) and analyzing and reconciling the resulting data (reconciliation protocols) with existing inventories to estimate emissions. These protocols are publicly available.

The objective of this project is to contribute to the energy sector’s methane reduction efforts through the assessment and quantification of storage tank batteries. The proposed project has four objectives that will occur simultaneously over the period of performance. Those objectives are:

• Develop a database on storage tank configurations and associated equipment through operator survey including tank type, function, age, gas throughput, etc.
• Develop emission factors for tanks that are sensitive to differences between basins, production types, age of facilities, and other variables.
• Understand the causes, frequencies, and rates of intermittent emitters, and represent those results in emission factors or emission estimation methods.
• Develop guidance on the effectiveness of tank monitoring and control systems for detecting and mitigating emissions.

The project team will conduct an innovative approach to improve the emission factors from storage tanks and associated equipment using the latest technology to identify and quantify the emissions. The scope of work also contains a detailed measurement campaign strategy to enable efficient collection and analysis of data which will fill the gap between the current bottom-up inventories and top-down measurement-based emissions.

A traditional field campaign will be implemented to characterize tank emissions ‘as found’ on a representative cross-section of field operations and will include detailed measurements, including emission rates and gas compositions, and specific emission locations and causes for emitters.

When a leak is found, the first field team will quantify emissions on-site using upgraded, methane specific measurement instrumentation (e.g., the Sensor Inc Hi-Flow 2) assisted by optical gas imager (OGI) cameras (when available) to ensure the tank emissions have been completely captured and quantified. To overcome uncertainty related to large leaks, the project team will explore diverse options involving a separate method or via a second “on-call” team. This team will quality assure/quality control (QA/QC) the first team’s emissions data from large leaks using other methods (EPA OTM 33A, QOGI, drone-based quantification method such as SeekOps).

TDA Research Inc., in collaboration with Schlumberger New Energy and the Missouri University of Science and Technology (MUST), proposes to develop novel 3D-printed sorbent structures that can capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) from air via a rapid thermal swing adsorption (RTSA) process. The recipient proposes to integrate thermally conductive additives (e.g., metal nanoparticles, carbon fibers) in between the sorbent layers assembled in a layer-by-layer printing process to develop sorbent structures with a continuous network of heat-conducting layers. The enhanced thermal conductivity and heat transfer rate in the sorbent structure will allow rapid and uniform heating of the sorbent and will demonstrate significant progress toward meeting the $100/net tonne CO₂ removed goal.

This project will develop high-value supercapacitor (SC) materials (i.e., carbon nanotubes (CNT) or carbon nanofibers (CNF) and functionalized porous carbon) from domestic coal in a cost-effective manner. This includes converting coal samples to high-performance SC materials at a laboratory scale, quantifying the performance of the developed materials in comparison with a baseline commercial material, and performing a technoeconomic analysis and technology gap assessment for the proposed technology. The developed materials will be extensively characterized, and the impact of the coal feedstock type and synthesis methods on the yield and quality of each product will be determined. The feasibility of producing coal-based SC materials with performance similar to commercial SC materials but at less than half the current cost of commercial materials will be evaluated.

The project will develop a novel technological approach to reduce or eliminate methane emissions from storage tanks. The proposed is a patent-pending technology designed to reduce or eliminate tank venting and flaring from production facilities, including gas vapors from storage tanks. The proposed technology uniquely integrates novel capture and compression into a production facility to produce maximum value and significantly reduce capital and operation costs with respect to traditional vapor recovery. The project plans to address economic challenges by providing fit-for-purpose compression and eliminating costly oil changes. Also, the proposed technology can purify storage tank vapors that are unrecoverable because of contaminants by incorporating low-cost purification, enabling recovery of heavier hydrocarbons and utilization of the contaminated gas. The project will build and test an engineering prototype unit under dynamic conditions to validate process control, design parameters, and safe operations. The technology is specifically designed to overcome the economic and technical challenges of vapor recovery from many distributed sources across the country. The target objective is to eliminate methane emissions from flaring and venting/fugitive emissions associated with pressure control of the storage tank headspace.

The objective of this project is to develop cost-effective carbon metal composites (CMCs) with enhanced bulk electrical properties for use in electric motors to increase American energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The CMC materials will be made using primary conductor materials (including copper and aluminum) and coal-derived graphitic carbons, such as nano-graphite and/or graphene. CMC wire formulations will be synthesized using unique solid and liquid phase methodologies and their performance will be assessed with respect to method and process parameters to establish material-process-structure-property relationships. In addition, standard wire drawing and annealing trials will be conducted using pilot-scale process equipment and wire performance will be quantified for electric motor applications. Computational tools including molecular dynamics (MD) simulations will be utilized to predict the properties of CMC materials and assess the interface between graphitic carbon and metal. Process simulations will be developed and validated using bench-scale information to support techno-economic and market analyses to identify required selling prices and resources necessary to further mature the CMC wire technology.

This project will study the potential of natural materials and industrial mine wastes, within the United States (U.S.) Mid-Atlantic region, to store large amounts of CO₂ via in-situ and ex-situ mineralization processes. More specifically, the project will assess the reactivity of mafic and ultramafic formations and crushed mine and industrial wastes with CO₂, and their post-mineralization physical properties. The project will work in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Energy to accomplish the projects main objectives. The project will analyze the geologic data collected from the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region to determine the suitable rock types. Laboratory scale CO₂ mineralization reaction tests of the suitable target formations and rock types will be done, as well as laboratory scale tests and simulations of the post-mineralization properties of the samples. The laboratory scale tests will be upscaled to field scale. The rock types will be ranked in terms of their suitability for carbon storage. Machine learning capabilities will also be used to determine reaction rates, rock properties, accessibility, associated costs, and to understand nearby regions by extrapolating out from the study area. The project will provide a database and map of the potential carbon storage resources.

Molecule Works Inc.’s Phase I objective is to demonstrate functional feasibility of the adsorption-concentrated electrochemical reactor (ACER) as a new generation of reactor technology for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture and conversion, and to produce performance data for scope process design and economics analysis of large, commercial-scale units. New bifunctional sorbent/catalyst materials will be prepared by utilizing the project team’s earlier inventions and new ideas. Single ACER cells will be built and tested to identify the optimum materials and design features. The promising cell will be tested on a flow testing stand by repeated capture and electrochemical (EC) regeneration/conversion cycles to demonstrate regeneration ability of the sorbent, catalytic stability, ethanol productivity and electrical efficiency.

In phase II, the EC cell designs will be further optimized to enhance the C₂₊ product selectivity and electrical efficiency. Longer-time stability of the EC cell operation will be demonstrated. The EC stack and system prototype, with about 1kg/day of product capacity, will be developed and demonstrated to show scale-up feasibility of the optimum catalyst and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) materials, as well as the fabrication of this new type of EC reactor. Process parametric tests will be conducted on the prototype unit to produce performance data for commercial-scale process designs and produce large amounts of products for accurate carbon atomic balance and for customer tests.

Southwest Technologies LLC, in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and the University of Arizona will use flue gas from a gas-fired power plant at Tucson Electric Power Company (TEP) to cultivate microalgae in open ponds. The holistic approach includes a two-step process: carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture on a silicone-carbonate composite sorbent (absorption sorbent column), followed by CO₂ desorption into algal growth media pond (spool-automated sorbent delivery system). During Budget Period 1 (BP1), the team will determine growth and carbon utilization for two algal strains using two different CO₂ delivery methods. During BP2, the team will integrate the two-step absorption/desorption system at TEP. The team will perform outdoor pilot-scale algal cultivation during 30-days of continuous testing using the composite sorbent loaded with flue gas; the results will be compared to the indoors experiments. Experimental results will inform the models for absorption and desorption, as well as inform the techno-economic assessment (TEA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) models.

The overall objective of this project is to demonstrate that (a) high frequency sampling can be used to create inventory emissions estimates that accurately represent emissions in a basin; and (b) the proposed method can be replicated in other basins. The project will perform method development and validation in the Denver-Julesburg Basin (DJ), in northeastern Colorado. Tasks will leverage prior work in the basin that provides an excellent starting point for Bottom-Up inventories and will engage operators in the basin to support emissions measurement and activity data collection. The project will also cooperate with Colorado’s air regulator (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)) to develop a tower monitoring network that can continue to operate after the project. The goal of the DJ basin work is to demonstrate that Top Down (TD)/Bottom Up (BU) estimates can be reconciled in an active production basin. To address the replicability of methods, the study includes a second basin – the Upper Green River (UGR) in western Wyoming – to demonstrate that the methods developed in the DJ can be applied in another basin. As in the DJ basin case, the study team will work with both operators and state government during the project, and, if possible, transfer the tower network to the State or to a citizen-industry collaborative for longer term operation. Work in the UGR will start after the DJ work to allow initial learnings from the DJ to be applied in the UGR. Specific objectives of the project include:

1. Develop a dynamic BU inventory model in the Mechanistic Air Emissions Simulator (MAES) that captures both average emissions and emissions variability.
2. Demonstrate methods to tune BU inventories using high-frequency TD sampling by a well-characterized sampling method.
3. Compare results from the tuned BU model to all-in basin emissions estimates from a network of tower-based sensors to check BU model accuracy.
4. Demonstrate that the method utilized in the DJ basin can be applied in another basin, potentially using a different top-down sampling method, to produce regionally specific emissions models.
5. Capture the learnings and process from these objectives as a replicable method for any production basin.

Kansas State University, University of Oklahoma, and Cooper Machinery Services have joined together to collaborate on the development and manufacture of a low-cost integrated system for eliminating methane emissions from natural gas (NG) engines. The proposed technology is designed to mitigate methane emissions from all industrial engines and reduce their operational costs and fuel consumption and enhance their stability and efficiency. The system can be incorporated in a timely manner with various new and old industrial engines without any specific limitations. It can eliminate the costs associated with onsite utilities (e.g., electricity, water) typically required in other technical approaches. The tubular structure of the membrane reactor enables a competitive manufacturing price and easy integration. Additionally, the membrane reactor in a novel tubular geometry is more robust in its ability to handle thermal, chemical, and mechanical stresses.

This project will independently evaluate the technical and economic feasibility for high-rate post-combustion carbon capture technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will partner with ION Clean Energy (ION) to conduct a comprehensive analysis for the ICE-31 solvent-based high-rate carbon capture technology developed by ION to achieve very high carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture efficiency from fossil fuel combustion (i.e., up to 99% efficiency and a goal of reaching 99.5%), particularly for natural gas-derived flue gases. LLNL will evaluate the ICE-31 solvent-based post-combustion carbon capture technology from experimental, process modeling, and techno-economic assessment perspectives.

In this project, the University of Illinois will develop an advanced technology for the mineralization of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from industrial emissions sources using dry and wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) byproducts for coproduction of value-added precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) and sulfate fertilizer products and validate its technical performance, economic competitiveness, and environmental sustainability.

The goal of this 24-month project is to develop electrochemical processes to convert coal and waste coal to two-dimensional nanoscale carbon material such as graphene and carbon quantum dots. These materials have unique electronic properties that make them of interest for use in energy storage devices including supercapacitors. Use of these materials in electrochemical energy storage devices could enhance device capacity and could help enable renewable energy by providing more efficient energy storage.

The team consists of Ohio University and industrial partners CFOAM and Capacitech Energy. Together, the partnering organizations will develop coal- and waste coal-derived materials that can be converted by electrochemical processes to the two-dimensional, nanoscale carbon materials. The outcome of this project is utilization of coal and waste coal in energy storage applications.

The “Oxiperator” is a patented, tested and proven, porous high-temperature heat exchanger that cost-effectively oxidizes methane, CO and VOCs, from point sources with concentrations of methane 0.3% and lower, and as high as 100% by volume in air. This project will demonstrate two pathways for the Oxiperator to oxidize methane in the combustion slip of gas engines used in upstream and midstream natural gas production: the Tail Oxiperator for rapid deployment, and the Tweener Oxiperator that not only oxidizes methane, but also improves engine performance and efficiency.

The College of Engineering & Mines at the University of North Dakota, in collaboration with a comprehensive team of technical, business and host-site partners and with funding support from the North Dakota Industrial Commission, will build on prior technology development to complete a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study and business plan to recover and refine rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals (CM) from North Dakota lignite mine wastes. The end-of-project goal is to have an investment-quality project and a committed team that is ready to execute the construction and operation of the REE Demonstration Facility in Phase II.

To achieve this goal, the objectives of the Phase I project are as follows: (1) quantify the proposed project’s job benefits and evaluate how to attract, train, and retain a qualified workforce; (2) identify specific diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility goals, targeted outcomes, and implementation strategies; (3) ensure that the project will provide meaningful benefits to disadvantaged communities and will not result in an increased burden to disadvantaged communities; (4) identify and implement methods for project stakeholder engagement; (5) develop all required permit applications and other regulatory approvals, including providing information for National Environmental Policy Act review, by the end of Phase I; (6) develop an AACE Class 3 FEED study for the REE Demonstration Facility and satellite sites to advance the project to investment quality; (7) perform limited research and development to de-risk certain technology subsystems and ensure the overall process functions smoothly in the integrated circuits; and (8) develop the Phase II business and financing plans to formalize the overall commercial structure and secure construction financing.

The objective of this project is to complete the front-end engineering design and pre-construction planning activities for a first-of-a-kind demonstration facility capable of producing rare earth elements (REE) and select critical minerals and materials (CMM) from domestic acid mine drainage and mineral tailings feedstocks. The facility will be designed to produce 1 to 3 metric tons per day of mixed rare earth oxides that will be separated into individual and binary REE and CMM components at a single site. The project team will develop a cost estimate according to Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering Class 3 guidelines. This project could incentivize the treatment of hundreds of legacy acid mine drainage discharges, allow streams to recover productivity, and produce a robust and steady supply of high value REE and CMM for domestic industries.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) seeks to assess technologies for reducing the carbon intensity of current mobile sources, especially the hard-to-electrify marine, rail and heavy-duty trucking transportation sectors. More specifically, this effort seeks to determine the efficacy of onboard carbon capture and storage (CSS) technologies and compare these against other alternative mobile energy sources, including hybrid-electric, electric, biofuels and zero-carbon fuels (ammonia, hydrogen, methanol, etc.). Mobile sources pose unique technical challenges associated with packaging and energy requirements, onboard storage of captured carbon dioxide (CO₂), and operational profiles. For instance, mobile sources often have highly variable exhaust flow rates, temperatures, pressures and exhaust gas chemistries. A research team comprised of vehicle/engine and carbon capture experts will assess the energy needs, operational boundaries, capture efficiencies and packaging limits of selected CCS technologies for use with mobile sources based on technical, economic and life cycle considerations. For each mobile source, each CCS method will be evaluated and ranked according to energy and space requirements, including opportunities to utilize waste heat, regenerative braking (for terrestrial applications), and ram air (for cooling). The effort will also evaluate the energy and infrastructure needs associated with direct air capture (DAC) for a level baseline cost comparison. The ORNL team will investigate the associated technical challenges and feasibility, while colleagues at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will conduct parallel techno-economic and life-cycle assessments of the different technologies under consideration. At the end of the project, a report will be delivered describing the operational boundaries associated with the technologies evaluated, as well as identifying opportunities and pathways for feasible carbon capture system designs and implementations for mobile systems.

The aim of this project is to design, develop and demonstrate an on-engine reformer that is compact, consumes very little energy, has a long operating life, is scalable and is affordable. This device will increase the hydrogen content in the fuel stream thereby enhancing oxidation of methane in the crevice volumes of the cylinder to result in significantly reduced methane emissions in the engine tail pipe. Additionally, the increased flame speed of the fuel-air mixture allows tuning of the engine to achieve improved thermal efficiency.

The overarching objective is to acquire new, science-based knowledge to improve the overall understanding of methane and other emissions from storage tanks at upstream and midstream oil and natural gas (ONG) sites. To achieve our overarching objective, we will focus on five key research activities over three phases that correlate to annual budget periods (BPs). The research focus areas that include:

1. Developing a basin wide inventory of ONG storage tanks, their throughput, and emissions

2. Completing extensive field measurement campaigns to obtain new accurate emissions data sets

3. Collecting extensive thermochemical measurements and activity of a subset of various storage tanks across the supply chain

4. Assessing AP-42 and current tank modeling software based on newly collected data to identify discrepancies and methods to address them

5. Utilizing advanced machine learning techniques (e.g., random forest and neural networks) to serve as new tools for emissions predictions

These objectives will be carried out through a scope of work that includes preparation for data collection (design and planning), significant in-field data collection, data analysis and reporting, laboratory analysis, emissions modeling and comparative analyses, and examination of advanced modeling. The project team will work with our research colleagues and industry collaborators to seek broader industry participation for short term emissions measurements and through long term project assistance via a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). These assets will be used along with state and national information to form an original inventory. Emission factors (EFs) will be updated through an in-field measurement campaign focused on storage tanks using our highly accurate full flow sampler (FFS) and state-of-the-art tracer release equipment. In addition to short term measurements, the team will work with industry to develop remote, solar powered data acquisition systems to enable accurate monitoring of thermochemical properties of in-use storage tanks. Field samples will be collected and undergo laboratory analyses. Data will be used to evaluate AP-42 and software models through conventional comparative analyses and where applicable changes will be implemented to improve accuracy. This will also include principal component analyses (PCA) to assess low cost instrumentation options that could be deployed by industry. Finally, all of the science data will be used in conjunction with advanced machine learning techniques to further improve our ability to accurately estimate storage tank emissions. Beyond the conventional technical scope, we will also strive to create a diverse team of researchers, foster inclusive education and collaboration opportunities for underrepresented minorities, and disseminate findings to all communities equally across the Appalachian basin.

Electric Power Research Institute Inc. (EPRI) will qualify blended feedstocks of biomass mixed with legacy coal wastes, plastic wastes, and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as acceptable fuels based on performance testing in a laboratory-scale updraft moving-bed gasifier. The testing will provide relevant data to advance the modular design of the moving-bed gasification process and successfully use these feedstocks to produce a high hydrogen content raw syngas that can be shifted to produce clean hydrogen. In particular, the effects of the various fuels on feedstock development, the resulting products (i.e., syngas compositions, organic condensate production, and ash characteristics), and impacts on gasifier operations will be the focus of the project. A techno-economic study and a review of the market and industry interests in the moving-bed gasifier and its application for generating clean hydrogen from blended fuels will also be conducted.

The goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate the technical feasibility of a sensor that can reliably provide real-time, continuous, quantitative measurements of contaminants relevant to the oil and gas industry. The Qube sensor can currently detect a suite of heavy metal and nutrient contaminants, but due to the use of microbes as sensor units and the team’s synthetic biology expertise, the platform can be expanded to detect a vast range of contaminants. A customized optics and image processing platform translates cellular responses to contaminants into quantitative information about the level of each target present. This Phase II project will develop new sensing capabilities for methanol, toluene, and benzene as well as expand the platform to detect specific microbial species that cause corrosion of oil and gas infrastructure. A highly trained, AI-based computational platform will also be developed to discern and discriminate between contaminants and quantify individual analytes in complex water backgrounds.

This project will assess Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) advanced structured 3D-printed triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) packing technology for solvent-based carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC). LLNL will validate advanced packing performance in NCCC’s Slipstream Solvent Test Unit at a scale two orders of magnitude greater than prior work. LLNL will de-risk this technology by assessing hydrodynamic performance and validating mass transfer improvements achieved in lab-scale tests. A techno-economic assessment combined with technology transfer activities will establish viability of commercialization.

This project will conduct a comprehensive bottom-up and top-down estimation of basin-wide methane emissions from two selected oil and gas basins across the United States (San Joaquin Valley Basin in California and Denver Basin in Colorado) using a multi-tiered measurement and analysis system, comprising of satellite data analysis, ground-based monitoring, ground-level mobile flux measurements using a mobile platform, and satellite methane super emitter surveys, as well as extensive inverse modeling and ground network data. In addition, the project will also develop robust bottom-up methane emissions estimates for the two oil and gas basins using a regional emissions inventory framework, which will also serve as a regional baseline and a-priori estimate for the inverse modeling exercise. This model will also be developed and refined through outreach surveys with oil and gas field operators in the two basins to capture the regional and operational nuances in the regions. Data from the satellite surveys will also provide an estimation of annual methane emission contributions from the super-emitter fraction in the two basins. It is planned that this overall assessment will provide guidance on deployment strategies for different measurement systems for a comprehensive assessment of regional methane emissions in other regions.

This FWP is part of a joint R&D project with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to assess the propensity of structural steels, alloys, and their weldments, to undergo high-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) when used for high-temperature hydrogen production and utilization with hydrocarbon feedstocks. The proposed work at ORNL has been structured in two phases. During phase 1, the propensity of structural steels and alloys, provided by industry partners for use in hydrogen production and utilization, to undergo HTHA will be determined. If the mechanical properties of these materials and their weldments are degraded as a result of HTHA, then during phase 2, ORNL will focus on (1) developing a fundamental understanding of HTHA in these materials, (2) extending ORNL's integrated computational welding engineering (ICWE) modeling and testing framework for more reliable assessment of HTHA that is critically needed by the industry, and (3) supporting the development of next-generation HTHA-resistant alloys, led by NETL. All of these activities will be carried out in close collaboration with industrial stakeholders by (i) investigating relevant field serviced materials, (ii) corroborating laboratory-scale testing results in this work with industry’s component-level testing, and (iii) technology dissemination for regulatory body approval and industry acceptance of the developed HTHA evaluation methodology and of alloys with enhanced HTHA resistance. The ultimate goal of this joint NETL/ORNL project is to improve the structural integrity and efficiency of structural components for the hydrogen economy, including high-temperature hydrogen production and utilization.

Project Lochridge is supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) Phase II Program by assessing the feasibility of an offshore storage complex in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The project aims to achieve the five following objectives: 1) Demonstrate that the subsurface saline formations at the offshore storage complex can safely and permanently store at least 50 million metric tons (MMT) of captured carbon dioxide (CO₂) over a 30-year period; 2) Conduct meaningful engagement and two-way communications with communities and stakeholders to inform project planning and design, address societal concerns and impacts, and seek opportunities for economic revitalization and job creation; 3) Identify commercial project risks and develop a comprehensive mitigation strategy; 4) Develop a technical and economic feasibility assessment; and 5) Develop a plan for subsequent detailed site characterization to support Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) permit readiness.

The project’s overall vision is to develop and demonstrate a new scalable sensor network that integrates multi-tier surface-based sensing technologies and inverse-modeling methods for monitoring CH4 concentrations and fluxes over a 100-mile² large oil and gas (O&G) producing testbed in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. This “first-of-its-kind” scalable network will demonstrate a “turn-key” solution for continuous and automated monitoring of CH4 emissions in real-time to address leaks for O&G stakeholders. To accomplish this overarching goal, the Team proposes four interconnected objectives:

1. Create a pilot demonstration of a scalable distributed sensor network in the Anadarko basin.

2. Develop and demonstrate a mobile sensing platform with autonomous operation capability.

3. Quantify emission fluxes and identify source locations with advanced inverse modeling.

4. Establish a web-based data visualization dashboard with field verification capability.

The overall objective of the work is to convert a commercially available tube-in-plate heat exchanger to be a contactor for direct air capture (DAC). In the project, the recipient will integrate a highly effective carbon dioxide (CO₂) adsorbent with a binder phase to make composite coatings that can be applied to the surfaces of commercially available tube-in-plate heat exchangers. The proposed system will provide rapid thermal cycling of the sorbent, thereby increasing the CO₂ productivity. The structured gas-solid contactor design will also reduce the pressure drop through the system and the associated parasitic energy loss for circulating large volumes of air to the system. While the adsorbent was developed in an earlier project and the proposed heat exchangers are commercially available, the use of sorbent-coated heat exchangers for CO₂ removal in a thermal swing application has not been demonstrated. Key metrics include an improved volumetric CO₂ productivity; a decreased pressure drop; reduced capacity fade; and a lower-cost, scalable fabrication process. The new DAC system will demonstrate significant progress toward meeting the goal of $100/net tonne CO₂ removed. The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the technology will be elevated from 3 to 4.

The overall objective of this project is to identify and assess the statewide resources for potential carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage via mineralization process, including basalt formations and mining wastes (termed as resource rock), and characterize the targeted storage site/complex to provide insights on its storage capacity. (See Figure 1.) Project tasks include: (1) pre-screening the potential location in New Mexico and surrounding areas through processing existing data and selecting the optimum sites for further consideration; (2) conducting site characterization and mapping as well as collecting regional geology, hydrology, injection zone, and other relevant geologic information in the field of the identified storage location/complex; (3) collecting legacy resource rock samples for detailed petrographic, petrologic and geochemical characterization to diagnose reactive mineral content and potential environmental hazards, and investigate the geophysical and geomechanical properties of the targeted storage site/complex to advance the CO₂ storage capacity estimation; (4) evaluating the reaction rate between CO₂/fluid and minerals and the storage capacity of the site/complex in both ambient and field conditions to indicate the optimum scenario for CO₂ storage via mineralization; and (5) performing a series of stakeholder related outreach and connection activities to identify the main challenges and concerns from the community.

The project objectives are to expand, improve, and document an existing network (Project Astra) that is testing the capabilities of continuous monitoring of methane emissions from oil and gas production sites in the Permian Basin by: (1) continuously monitoring methane emissions sources, serving as a part of a “rapid-response” approach for identifying and measuring emission events; (2) demonstrating advanced data analytics which improve the accuracy and cost effectiveness of the network; and (3) validating the efficiency, operability, and cost effectiveness of advanced methane detection and monitoring technologies.

The network provides broad areal coverage of emissions and efficiently uses sensing technologies by integrating information from the entire network. This work will expand, improve, and document the Project Astra activities by meeting the following objectives:

1. Refine project management systems and project documentation that enable the operation and replication of shared continuous monitoring for methane emissions.
2. Extend the Project Astra network to a demonstration of a scalable “basin-wide” platform.
3. Advance the detection and quantification capabilities of sensing technologies.
4. Support emission inventory improvements.
5. Demonstrate advanced data analytics and accelerate and automate responses to network emission detections.
6. Inform the development of Integrated Methane Modeling Platform Designs.

Georgia Tech Research Corporation will synthesize, characterize, and optimize expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE)/silica laminate composite materials infused with polyethyleneimine capable of efficient heat and mass transfer with reduced pressure drop for use in direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide (CO₂). A bench-scale contactor will be constructed to house laminates, assess material performance, and determine optimal conditions for ambient and sub-ambient DAC of CO₂. Long-term degradation will be studied to determine operating conditions that minimize material instability. A techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) will be conducted. The project team includes a prime recipient (Georgia Tech) and one sub-recipient (W. L. Gore and Associates). Georgia Tech will conduct the research program and W. L. Gore will provide materials and assist with deployment of contactor.

The objective of this project is to further develop and demonstrate the feasibility of coal-derived graphite oxide (GO), reduced graphite oxide (rGO), and graphene nanosheets with application to battery anode materials and cement filler. This work is designed to demonstrate the production process from coal feedstock to end-use product and show effectiveness of the anode material and concrete applications. The three overall objectives of this project are to improve production of GO using Powder River Basin coal as feedstock, conduct continued testing and improvement of a hard carbon sodium-ion battery prototype and test device, and determine the properties and performance of concrete using GO and rGO as a concrete additive or cement replacement.

The overall objective of this project is to reduce methane emissions by 20-60% from large-bore natural gas (NG) engines. The emission reduction will be achieved by reforming an engine’s natural gas fuel feed into a hydrogen-containing fuel mixture that maximizes methane oxidation during combustion. More specifically, Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) will develop a modular natural gas fuel reformer that will be installed on the feed fuel line on a 15” piston bore, 16” power stroke AJAX 2802 ULE engine that is owned and operated by Cooper Machinery Services. SwRI will leverage patented High Impulse Plasma Source (HiPIPS) technology for use in the fuel reformer that will convert a portion of the natural gas fuel into in-line combustion additives.

Faraday Technology seeks to develop an electrochemical/crystallization reactor for the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) which will produce value added products such as calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and magnesium hydroxide (Mg[OH]₂). In the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project, the project team successfully developed an optimized, membrane-less electrolyzer/crystallizer technology and demonstrated the precipitation and recovery of CaCO₃ and Mg(OH)₂. In the SBIR Phase II project, Faraday will scale this system up to a commercially relevant size, address key technical challenges and knowledge gaps, and transition the technology to a commercial partner. Through the period of performance, the project team will design and build the electrolyzer system, including the cell design and operational parameters; optimize and validate the electrochemical mineralization process using produced water for maximum product yield; and develop a life cycle analysis (LCA) to be utilized in system design improvement and industrial scale transition.

Palo Alto Research Center Inc. (PARC), in collaboration with SIMACRO LLC, is developing a fast and high-capacity reversible oxygen (O₂) sorbent that enables an Oxygen Integrated Unit for Modular Biomass Conversion to Hydrogen (OXYIUM). The sorbent is a durable porous polymer with chemically bonded coordinated Co²+ complexes that capture O₂ reversibly by vacuum pressure swing adsorption. High specific surface area (greater than 300 m²/g) and pore tuning of mesopores 10 nanometers (nm) to 100s of nm in size will enable rapid rates of gas transport, bulk diffusion, and high O2 uptake. This project will address the development and demonstration of the O₂ sorbent, the characterization of the key performance metrics, and the modeling of an air separation unit (ASU) with this sorbent. The project will provide the data necessary for a decision to build a pilot-scale ASU in a future phase. If successful, this project will demonstrate the potential for a small-scale, modular ASU to produce clean, carbon-free energy from local biomass, providing communities with an alternative to trucks or pipelines transferring hydrogen, providing a route to fuel diversification and energy resiliency, and bringing the clean energy economy and jobs to rural and historically disadvantaged communities.

The goal of this project is to develop a lab-scale additive manufacturing (AM) process to fabricate carbon-copper composites with a high heat dissipation rate and low thermal stress and demonstrate highly efficient and compact heat sinks for electrical applications. Graphene derived from domestic U.S. coal will be used as a carbon feedstock for the carbon-metal composite heat sink development. The specific project objectives are to (1) develop a new feedstock material system based on coal-derived graphene and high-carbon-yielding polymers to additively fabricate three-dimensional (3D) coal-derived graphene scaffolds, (2) develop a post-processing method to impregnate copper into graphene scaffolds, (3) develop coal-derived graphene-copper composites with high heat dissipation rate and low thermal stress, (4) design, develop, optimize, and demonstrate highly-efficient and compact graphene-copper heat sinks enabled by AM, (5) perform a full techno-economic analysis to inform technology development and assess the potential of coal-derived graphene for rapidly growing and high-value AM and carbon-metal composite markets.

Susteon Inc. will develop a novel single-stage dual-layer advanced air separation technology to produce high-purity oxygen that is needed for the efficient production of high-purity hydrogen. This work will utilize Susteon’s “OxygenPure” technology, developed in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology, to design and construct an integrated prototype fiber modular rapid pressure swing adsorption (RPSA) system. The “OxygenPure” process utilizes a microporous nitrogen-selective lithium-exchanged X-type (LiX) zeolite-containing fiber adsorbent followed by an argon-selective carbon molecular sieve (CMS)-structured fiber adsorbent to separate nitrogen and argon from air via RPSA, producing oxygen. The project will optimize the advanced fiber adsorbents and demonstrate continuous oxygen production at a scale of 10 kilograms per day, with purity greater than 95%. Results will include a technology package that can be integrated with a biomass/waste gasifier system to produce high-purity hydrogen.

TDA Research Inc. will develop a modular, novel, sorbent-based, advanced air separation unit (ASU) for oxygen production to support low-cost hydrogen production from the gasification of biomass and/or wastes. TDA's two-stage high-purity oxygen process will demonstrate high purity (greater than 98% by vol., preferably above 99.5% by vol.) oxygen generation from ambient air that is more affordable, more efficient, and has a smaller facility footprint than comparable cryogenic-based air separation systems. The key technology to achieve more affordable oxygen production lies in the novel sorbents that will be utilized in a two stage, modular, vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system. The modular oxygen production system is expected to be sized to support 5–50-megawatt (MW) gasification-based systems for net-zero carbon hydrogen production.

This project is determining the feasibility of an integrated carbon storage project in the Southeastern Michigan Basin. The project objective is to advance the commerciality of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Southeastern Michigan Basin while supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); disadvantaged communities; and environmental justice communities. The project team plans to complete detailed site characterization, including drilling a stratigraphic test well and analyzing site geology. Additionally, the project will model the storage reservoir, perform a risk assessment, conduct public outreach and engagement, and develop the needed plans to draft an Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI permit.

C-Crete Technologies LLC has proposed to demonstrate the feasibility of converting more than 10 kg/day carbon dioxide (CO₂) to a special formulation of high-performance concrete containing feedstocks and industrial byproducts that rivals/outperforms ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete in performance while mineralizing net CO₂. The recipient will utilize advanced synthesis and green chemistry, followed by standard testing to demonstrate feasibility of mineralizing CO₂ into a special formulation of concrete. At the completion of the project, the recipient will demonstrate the scale-up of the optimal synthesis protocols, perform small pilot testing, and conduct a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) toward commercial deployment.

This project will utilize carbon dioxide (CO₂) to process alkaline solid wastes, such as coal ash and steel slag, into carbon-negative supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Preliminary investigations support SCMs replacing more than 50% of cement when making concrete/blended cement, which may result in up to 57% greener cementitious materials. A diverse range of alkaline solid wastes will be investigated to understand the influence of starting material on carbonation and resulting SCMs. Wet and dry carbonation methods will be developed and optimized to determine the most economically favorable synthesis. Multiple paths for carbonation will minimize the risk of low conversion efficiency. Cement materials blended from SCMs will be tested using industrial standards. The objectives are to understand the characteristics of solid waste feedstock, optimize the feedstocks into nano-micro-carbonates-aluminosilicate (nCAS), and upscale the production of nCAS and establish its performance credibility as an SCM for the deep decarbonization of concrete.

The Sutter County Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Capture and Storage Project in the central Sacramento Basin of Northern California will support the Department of Energy's Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) program as a Phase II project, which will consist of an assessment of the feasibility for a storage complex within the region's Area of Interest (AOI). The storage complex will be evaluated via data collection from the drilling of a stratigraphic test well within the AOI, associated testing, geologic, reservoir and geomechanical modeling, risk assessment and mitigation/monitoring planning, CO₂ source and transport planning, analysis of contractual and regulatory requirements, a technical and economic feasibility assessment, and a data verification for a future Phase III Underground Injection Control Class VI permit application. Additionally, the project team will further develop and implement community outreach activities addressing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, the Justice40 Initiative, Community and Stakeholder Engagement, and Economic Revitalization and Job Creation.

The Coastal Bend Carbon Management Project: CarbonSAFE Phase II is working to establish the feasibility and cost of commercial deployment of geological carbon-storage technologies in the Coastal Bend Region of the Texas Gulf Coast. The location of interest is a multi-source hub of onshore storage facilities proximal to the Port of Corpus Christi as the cornerstone of a centralized, multi-faced carbon management solution at the Port of Corpus Christi. Objectives include to: quantify subsurface storage resources; refine reservoir targets/priorities for permanent storage of commercial quantities of carbon dioxide (CO₂); design surface facilities to ensure safety, identify risks, mitigants, costs, and legal and regulatory requirements as a key step in developing a mitigation and monitoring plan; conduct a full spectrum cost-benefit analysis that captures the environmental and socio-economic impacts; and develop two-way outreach and engagement program that promotes equitable, inclusive economic development and seeks to prioritize benefits to historically disadvantaged communities.

This project is determining the feasibility of establishing a commercial-scale regional geologic storage complex for carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Shelby County, Alabama. The project objective is to complete detailed characterization work, including drilling a stratigraphic test well, evaluating the petrophysical properties of targeted formations, and interpreting wellbore geology from lithologic logs. Additionally, the project team plans to perform a risk assessment, conduct public outreach and engagement, evaluate infrastructure for CO₂ transport, and evaluate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Class VI Underground Injection Control (UIC) needs for the region.

The primary objective of the proposed work is to establish the potential for underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in the depleted gas fields of Appalachia, particularly: ‘Berea’ sandstone, ‘Big Lime’ limestone, and depleted ‘Marcellus’ shale.

To be accomplished by:

(a) identifying in-situ biochemical metabolic pathways that would potentially consume hydrogen, and developing strategies to inhibit hydrogen loss

(b) evaluating storage permanence by characterizing the effect of hydrogen on reservoir and caprock storage/trapping properties

(c) developing a coupled multi-phase model to evaluate storage performance from core-to-reservoir scale

(d) characterizing the effect of long duration hydrogen exposure on wellbore components

(e) analyzing infrastructural capacities to help support a regional hydrogen hub

(f) providing a preliminary techno-economic analysis of prospective storage facilities in proximity to large-scale end users

The purpose of the project is to conduct full scale natural gas compressor loop testing with hydrogen blending. To accomplish this, activities in the first phase will include a design review and modifications of the compressor loop for hydrogen blending, design and construction of a hydrogen/natural gas blending skid, equipment ordering and installation. The second phase of the project includes modeling predictions of equipment and loop performance and testing at various percentages of hydrogen up to 20% volumetric concentration to evaluate characteristics of the loop, including low leakage piping components and hydrogen separator testing. Test results will be compared to modeling predictions and the results and process will be documented in a best practices document written to an audience of operators when converting natural gas compressor stations to hydrogen blending.

The project objective is to research a solar-thermal pyrolysis technology that uses concentrated solar energy to convert methane into green hydrogen and a high-value form of solid carbon.

The project goals are to:

1. Conduct a series of scale-up experiments to achieve high yields of hydrogen and graphitic carbon in a representative solar environment with 40-50 kW insolation to produce >5 kg H2 per day.
2. Quantify the benefits and outcomes of these efforts through a combination of detailed instrumentation and internal as well as third-party verification.
3. Conduct these experiments by establishing a field site and a dish concentrator for testing.
4. Develop a custom receiver/reactor with in-line thermochemical gas-phase diagnostics and off-line graphitic carbon characterization with advanced measurement techniques (laser absorption spectroscopy, residual gas analysis, Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffractometry) to collect data and determine hydrogen and carbon product yields, as well as process efficiency, and other key parameters.
5. Use the data to develop a techno-economic analyses that will provide a basis for further research and development toward commercial scale-up activities.

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) will advance a transformative technology for the co-recovery of calcium and magnesium carbonate and high value energy critical metals from alkaline industrial residues generated during secondary aluminum manufacturing and iron and steel making through integrated carbon capture and conversion. The team will harness distinct but highly complementary expertise to determine energetically and economically efficient pathways for scalable implementation of the technology. The project will advance distributed carbon capture and conversion for metal recovery, thus enabling a domestic decarbonized supply of energy critical metals, while producing calcium carbonate for use in the built environment.

The primary objective of this effort is to develop a comprehensive, multi-scale, facility-level, methane emissions measurement and reconciliation protocol within the Marcellus shale basin. To achieve this overarching objective, the following sub-objectives will be undertaken:

1. Develop a comprehensive project management and documentation protocol to integrate measurements, operator-data, and modeling to enable reconciliation of bottom-up inventory estimates and top-down atmospheric measurements.
2. Identify representative facilities across the supply chain in the Marcellus shale basin and select suitable technologies that capture spatial and temporal variation in methane emissions.
3. Integrate multi-scale measurements from privately generated data provided to the project of representative oil and gas facilities in the Marcellus basin.
4. Develop tools to expand functionality and use for continuous emissions monitoring systems in detecting and mitigating methane emissions.
5. Assemble activity data and develop mechanistic models of emissions to reconcile measurements with bottom-up inventory estimates.
6. Develop measurement integration and emissions reconciliation tool.
7. Develop facility and basin-specific emissions factors and distributions.
8. Support development of integrated methane monitoring platform.
9. Develop dissemination plans to communicate results and create education and training programs for workforce development.

The overall goal is to validate and scale up the Mixed Metal Oxide Composite (MMOC)-based fixed bed technology for hydrogen (H₂) production and analyze its techno-economic impact. The objectives of the project include: (1) Perform component testing to obtain key quantifiable performance targets for the fixed bed system on a bench scale module, such as the gas hourly space velocity of reactant gases in each of the reaction steps, the extent of MMOC conversion in each reaction step, and the effect of operating pressure. The bench module will be designed and fabricated for testing at a scale of production of 1 kg H₂/day; (2) Develop a dynamic reactor model of the proposed system for designing a commercial scale fixed bed system; and (3) Perform a comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) on the fixed bed system to assess the economic and market potential of the technology.

The project objectives are to advance a novel thermocatalytic methane pyrolysis process that uses a structured catalyst, verify its performance from bench-scale testing to support scaleup, and develop a high-fidelity process design package to attract future private investment in a demonstration plant. The project team will focus on laboratory efforts to design, build, test, and verify all components of the methane pyrolysis apparatus. The system is to be functional up to 750 degrees C and is to have H₂ production capacity of 1 Kg/day or greater. In addition to hydrogen production optimization, project activities include analysis and evaluation of the solid carbon by-product and process modeling to inform techno-economic and life cycle analysis of the pyrolysis method.

The primary objective of the CarbonSAFE Phase II project, the Tulare County Carbon Storage Project (TCCSP), is to establish a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration hub capable of storing and injecting at least 50 million metric tons of CO₂ over the course of 30 years in the California Central Valley. Current estimates suggest the project site can geologically store nearly 500 million metric tons of CO₂; the TCCSP team will seek to verify the geologic suitability of such estimates through the drilling of a stratigraphic test well and analysis of pertinent recovered geologic data from the test well. The project team will develop a roadmap for required permitting and project development activities to determine the most feasible project deployment scenarios, including CO₂ sourcing and routing options. Permitting activities will be tailored to Underground Injection Control Class VI injection well permit standards as well as California Air Resources Board (CARB) low carbon fuel standard certification specifications. In addition to its technical and commercial objectives, the project team will collaborate with local communities, stakeholders, United States Environmental Protection Agency (Region 9) and CARB to share project information and gather feedback to adapt TCCSP’s technical approach as well as a societal considerations and impacts (SCI) strategy. The SCI strategy will factor in environmental and energy justice, community outreach, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility aspects of the current and future phases of the project. As a key component of this strategy, the TCCSP team will conduct community engagement workshops to gather feedback and consequently implement an outreach-action-feedback approach to incorporate feedback into project plans.

The objective of this project is to determine the feasibility of developing a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) geologic stacked storage complex able to safely, permanently, and economically store 50+ million metric tons (MMT) of CO₂ in northwestern North Dakota. The storage complex is being evaluated for storing CO₂ aggregated from multiple sources in a stacked storage configuration. CO₂ will be captured from several gas-processing plants in the area owned and operated by the project partner and a planned gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in the project area. This effort is bolstered by progressive North Dakota pore space ownership and long-term liability laws, North Dakota primacy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Class VI CO₂ injection regulations, and commitment from local, regional, and state-level stakeholders. These elements, in combination with a motivated, experienced team, create an ideal synergistic scenario for ensuring success of the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) project and promoting national energy security through carbon management.

The objective of this project is to conduct a pilot scale field-demonstration of hydrogen production (capacity of 1 ton/day) using produced water (generated during oil and gas extraction) at a cost~15% below existing methods ($1.30 – $2.10/kg of H₂) and showing potential to reach DOE’s goal of $1 per 1 kg by 2030. The produced water will be treated using supercritical water desalination and oxidation (SCWDO) followed by steam methane reforming process (SMR) for H₂ production. The project will result in a containerized technology readiness level (TRL) 6 pilot-scale demonstrator, with the intent of encouraging industry to adopt the technology at even greater scale, allow further optimization testing, and engage stakeholders to win local community support for use of this technology in their towns/industries.

The primary objective of the project is to assess the storage complex feasibility for hydrogen. This will be accomplished via data collection (collection of the reservoir and seal rock core samples, reservoir fluid, and geologic and regional Hydrogen (H₂) and Natural Gas market data, geologic, reservoir, and market (supply-demand) modeling, risk assessment, mitigation/monitoring planning, and field implementation planning (H₂ source and transport planning, analysis of contractual and regulatory requirements, technical and economic feasibility assessment, and technical feasibility evaluation).

Osmoses Inc., in partnership with GTI Energy, is developing a novel membrane system, using Osmoses’ proprietary polymer composition, that is capable of producing enriched oxygen from air for integration into modular gasification systems for low-cost hydrogen production. As the lead organization, Osmoses is developing the materials and performing all prototyping and evaluation. GTI Energy is designing the overall gasification process that will incorporate Osmoses’ technology for oxygen enrichment.

North Carolina State University (NCSU) will develop a redox-based, radically engineered modular air separation unit (REM-ASU) that generates oxygen (O₂) at reduced capital cost and energy consumption. Specifically, technical objectives include: (1) developing advanced steam-resistant O₂ sorbents with greater than 2 wt% O2 capacity and high activity for efficient O₂ generation without a vacuum desorption step; (2) demonstrating the REM-ASU system in a 20 kg/day test bed to validate the sorbent robustness and process performance; (3) designing the REM-ASU for integration with a 5–10 megawatt (MW) modular biomass gasifier with greater than 35% energy and cost reduction for greater than 98% O₂ generation compared to conventional ASUs. A techno-economics report and detailed commercialization plan based on information obtained from the design and operation of the pilot unit, combined with process modeling and a techno-economic analysis, will be submitted at the end of the project.

Calcify will develop a 20-kg/day prototype process utilizing biomass ash and desalination brines for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) yielding stabilized, amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC). Calcify will demonstrate that stabilized ACC-containing cement has superior properties to ordinary portland cement. Calcify proposes to collocate this process with a biomass combustion power plant and near to a source of desalination brine. The biomass ash will be leached to recover its alkalinity, and the ash will then be used to capture CO₂ from the flue gas for conversion to selective mineral carbonates. ACC is a preferred form of calcium carbonate because it is chemically reactive when added to concrete, thereby strengthening the concrete. In contrast, precipitated calcium carbonate, available commercially and commonly added to cement, is unreactive and acts only as a filler, thereby weakening the cement. Consequently, ACC-containing cement will be both superior in performance to cement currently on the market and have a lower carbon footprint.

Pennsylvania State University (PSU) will investigate technology advances to increase simple and combined cycle gas turbine efficiency while expanding potential ranges of fuels and combustor designs. Specifically, this project will evaluate the use of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) with the intention of reducing the need for turbine cooling air, which is a parasitic loss in terms of efficiency. This effort will evaluate how the surface topology of CMCs impact the vane boundary layers and associated aerodynamic penalties that lead to reduced turbine efficiencies. In addition, this project will evaluate a range of turbine inlet temperature profiles that simulate fuels such as hydrogen and hydrogen blends to determine impacts on turbine performance. Understanding the effects of temperature profiles resulting from different fuels on component life and efficiencies are important for advancing turbine designs to meet high efficiency goals while reducing the environmental impacts.

The objectives of the project will be achieved through the design, fabrication, and testing of CMC components in a unique, world-class test facility. The Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) facility is capable of long-duration testing of turbine hot gas path components in a rotating environment, simulating engine operating parameters at steady state. The proposed project will investigate the use of an uncooled CMC vane placed downstream of the existing single-stage turbine section resulting in a 1st vane-1st blade-2nd vane configuration (1.5 stage). To complete these proposed research goals, the START facility will be upgraded to account for the additional flows needed at high pressures given the addition of the CMC 2nd vane half stage. A common turbine geometry developed under the National Experimental Turbine (NExT) research program will be utilized to evaluate the impacts of turbine inlet temperature profiles on turbine durability and performance. These profiles will be inclusive of those in today’s operating combustors, as well as future designs using fuels such as hydrogen and hydrogen blends.

Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Inc. aims to design and develop a direct Air capture (DAC) system based on a novel structured sorbent material containing an amine polymer aerogel that has high carbon dioxide (CO₂) adsorption capacity. The amine polymer aerogel is fabricated into a structured adsorbent and then assembled into contactors with fixed-bed geometries. The properties of the structured sorbent (CO₂ uptake, work capacity, adsorption rate, degradation, etc.), configurations of the contactor (shape, size, etc.), and operating parameters (flow rate, regeneration temperature, etc.) will be optimized to achieve high-volumetric productivity, low-pressure drop, and low-capacity fade per cycle toward the target general DAC cost of less than $100/net tonne CO₂-equivalent removed. The DAC system will be finalized as a laboratory-scale system with a continuous production rate of greater than 1 kg CO₂/day at a purity of greater than 90% CO₂, demonstrating less than 0.005%/cycle capacity fade over 1,000 hours of operation. The project will also demonstrate that the structured adsorbent can be produced in a low-cost and scalable manufacturing process. Accomplishing these goals will represent significant progress in advancing the DAC technology from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 to TRL 4.

The Mitchell CarbonSAFE Phase II Project is a feasibility study with the goal of geologically characterizing potential geologic storage complexes within Cambro-Ordovician strata in Mitchell, Indiana. The study will determine the feasibility of the site for geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂). The CO₂ will be sourced from the Heidelberg Materials US, Inc Mitchell Cement Plant. Characterization efforts will consist of drilling a 7,000-foot-deep stratigraphic test well and performing a 50 linear mile two-dimensional seismic survey. Lithostratigraphic geologic data will be gathered from the stratigraphic test well and used to evaluate the storage resources using the Storage Resource Management Systems (SRMS) classification scheme. Structural interpretations of the site’s subsurface will be made from the seismic survey. All project objectives will be completed within 24-months in one budget period. The project consists of six tasks and has six subrecipients that will be contributing to the project tasks at varying levels of engagement.

Hermiston Oregon Basalt Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (HERO) will conduct a feasibility assessment of the technical and non-technical aspects of an integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) project south of Hermiston, Oregon. The project team will examine the potential of carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage via mineralization trapping in basaltic rocks. Mineralization trapping in basaltic rocks is an attractive alternative option for emitters located far from high-capacity CO₂ sedimentary basin storage resources. The potential for rapid mineralization of CO₂ in basalts and the widespread geographic distribution of basaltic formations in the Pacific Northwest offers a potential unconventional, high-capacity CO₂ storage opportunity. Research into mineralization trapping in basaltic rocks needs further investigation to determine the best practices for sustained CO₂ injection at the commercial scale.

The objective of this project is the development and field deployment of an intelligent, universal, low-cost emissions reduction retrofit kit for industrial engines use in different sectors, especially in the oil and gas industry. The proposed technology includes real-time performance sensing technologies, advanced machine learning algorithms, and robust feedback control systems for engine performance improvement under different operating conditions. This smart retrofit kit can significantly reduce methane slip from different engine types, reduce their operational costs and fuel consumption, and enhance their stability and efficiency. The system can be incorporated in a timely manner with various new and old industrial engines without any specific limitations.

The goal of this CarbonSAFE Phase III project is to develop the Lone Star Storage Hub, a large-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration complex consisting of two storage facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast. Project tasks include filing for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Class VI “Authorization to Construct” permits at both locations, completing the characterization of the storage facilities, optimizing the storage field development plans to reduce risk, developing and deploying monitoring technologies needed to ensure the non-endangerment of underground sources of drinking water (USDW), completing the United States Department of Energy (DOE) National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) process and compiling and executing a Community Benefits Plan. Engineering studies are being performed for the associated CO₂ sources and pipeline network.

The Longleaf CCS Hub project seeks to significantly reduce the carbon emissions of south Alabama through the development of a stacked storage hub in proximity to Bucks, Alabama. SSEB and partnering organizations will complete permitting, characterization, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) efforts, characterize the deep subsurface through seismic methods and drilling a deep characterization well, and receive a Class VI underground injection control (UIC) permit to construct. Parallel efforts include the development of a pipeline FEED study and a CO₂ source feasibility study and implementation of a robust community benefits plan (CBP).

The main objective of this project is to advance technology for exploring the feasibility of large-volume hydrogen storage caverns in Permian bedded salt.

To address this objective, the project will:

1. Investigate coupled hydro-bio-chemo-mechanical processes that affect H₂ flow through evaporite rocks, mudrocks, and interfaces with wellbore cement and casing,
2. Determine the long-term efficiency, integrity, reliability, and safety of hydrogen storage caverns in heterogenous bedded salt in the Permian Basin.
3. Identify mitigation solutions for potential hydrogen leaks and optimization of cavern target depth and wellbore isolation.
4. Execute small-scale hydrogen storage tests in the Salado Formation in views of preparation for a full-scale pilot test.

These objectives would be achieved through a series of technical tasks including:

1. Quantification of physical properties and potential alterations in Salado Formation rocks in the presence of hydrogen, including determination of vertical heterogeneity.
2. Quantification of physical properties and potential alterations of wellbore isolating materials and interfaces in the presence of hydrogen, including effects of hydrogen long-term-exposure.
3. Integration of measurements, development of constitutive models for bedded salt, digital analogs, and prediction of hydrogen storage effectiveness through numerical simulation.
4. Execution of small-scale hydrogen storage tests and well-sealing performance in the WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plan, New Mexico) facility.

Unlike extensive work done in domal salts, this project will target bedded salts and include the effects of vertical heterogeneity and interbedded siliciclastic red beds and anhydrite layers found in the Salado Formation. Furthermore, the research will extend current knowledge on hydrogen flow in the subsurface in the presence of coupled mechanical, geochemical, and biological processes for intact evaporite rocks, mudrocks, interfaces with casing, and wellbore cement in the presence of formation and mining fluids. The project will advance technology for quantifying the effectiveness of hydrogen storage in bedded salt and identify potential leak points and detrimental processes that could be addressed based on scientific principles.

The objective of the project is to support the future commercialization of H₂ generation, storage, and use by evaluating the potential for high-volume, secure subsurface H₂ storage with concomitant high recovery from geologic complexes of the North Dakota portion of the Williston Basin. The project team will accomplish this objective through 1) assessment of saline, depleted oil and gas, and salt formations for H₂ storage suitability; 2) characterization and assessment of the effects of long-term H₂ storage use and exposure on formation fluids, storage and confining unit rocks, and wellbore materials; and 3) a basinwide estimate of geologic H₂ storage potential, including factors that will inform storage and recovery performance. Project tasks will include laboratory investigation of core specimens from the Williston Basin; modeling and simulation of H₂ injection, storage, and production for different formations in the basin; and development of basin-scale storage volumetrics for H₂ storage and recovery scenarios.

The objectives of this field work proposal are to demonstrate the use of coal and coal refuse feedstocks to manufacture carbon and graphite fibers at semi-production scale at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Carbon Fiber Technology Facility and to manufacture graphite particles for lithium-ion battery anodes and other energy storage applications at multi-kilogram scale. This work builds on the activities and results associated with projects FWP-FEAA155 and FWP-FEAA157 that ORNL has led in collaboration with the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research, which identified multiple pathways to utilize coal and coal refuse as feedstocks to manufacture carbon fibers, graphite fibers, and graphite particles for energy storage devices. This project will also conduct market, technical, economic, and environmental analyses to assess the market viability of carbon fibers, graphite fibers, and anodes for lithium-ion batteries derived from coal and coal refuse.

This CarbonSAFE Phase II project is collecting and analyzing new, state-of-the-art data to comprehensively characterize the storage complex in a manner that is consistent with the Environmental Protection Agency permitting standards. Major activities include drilling, coring, and logging a 12,000 feet deep stratigraphic test well, and extensive analogue and outcrop mapping and data sampling. These new datasets complement a pre-existing dataset that contains core and geologic data. The collected data will be analyzed using state-of-the-art carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies that have been derived from previous and ongoing CCUS demonstration projects and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) comprehensive Best Practice Manuals for CCUS (NETL, 2017). The analyzed data will be used for site characterization, modeling and simulations, risk assessments, site management and monitoring plans, potential underground injection control class VI well permits, and to determine technical/economic feasibility and societal considerations.

Holocene Climate Corporation is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to conduct bench-scale testing of a new optimized direct air capture (DAC) system using amino acids and guanidine compounds, a chemical process invented at ORNL. Holocene aims to use ORNL’s chemistry to further develop and deploy the technology on a commercial scale. Holocene and ORNL have studied and validated the basic chemistry, and this undertaking will address challenges related to validating the DAC process’s basic-unit operations. ORNL team members’ expertise in basic science research will complement Holocene’s engineers, who can prototype quickly and purchase efficiently. The novel combined solvent-sorbent system benefits from the advantages of the two established DAC technological approaches and offers transformative cost reductions in DAC. The project will explore several variants of the DAC process designed to reduce technical risks and costs through bench-scale testing of new processes and components for the solvent-sorbent DAC technology. The project team will run experiments in parallel to rapidly develop and advance the DAC process. The project’s primary objective is to elevate the technology from a research state to an experimentally demonstrated proof-of-concept. The project team will focus on (1) developing advanced, novel desorption processes to reduce thermal energy requirements and lower desorption temperature, and (2) designing the air contactor to reduce pressure drop and optimize carbon dioxide (CO₂) absorption.

The goal of this project is to create basin-specific methane emissions inventories of the Haynesville and Anadarko basins. This objective will be accomplished through quantification of basin-level methane emissions through a coordinated, concurrent campaign that combines cutting-edge, bottom-up (BU) modeling with top-down (TD) aerial and satellite surveys. Resulting BU and TD inventories will be reconciled and used to create basin-scale emission distributions that describe the size and frequency of methane emissions from the smallest to the largest sources. Additionally, in each basin, researchers will collect a three-year time series of methane emissions to characterize seasonal and annual trends. The resulting products and methodologies pioneered here will support the development of improved, basin-specific methane emissions quantification and mitigation strategies.

The overall objective of the proposed effort is to demonstrate the viability, in an operational environment, of an arc-plasma reactor utility in creating hydrogen as a treatment and disposal method for toxic produced water. An AI system will be designed to regulate and optimize the reactor and subsequent systems to ensure efficient operation based on the most desired outputs. The gas product will be separated and processed to ensure a zero-emission product stream and create hydrogen, which has a high energy storage potential. Aspects of the treatment process, such as harvesting value-added products such as salts, minerals, or rare earth elements from the produced water stream, will also be the subject of investigation.

The goal of this project is to advance development of a large-scale commercial geologic carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage hub in central North Dakota to safely and permanently store up to 200 million metric tons of CO₂. The proposed storage hub would store up to 8.9 million metric tons per year of CO₂ captured from the Coal Creek Station power plant and up to 200,000 metric tons per year of CO₂ captured from the Blue Flint Ethanol plant, which is colocated with Coal Creek Station. Project efforts being led by the University of North Dakota's Energy & Environmental Research Center, in partnership with Rainbow Energy Center and Neset Consulting Services, Inc., include site characterization and permitting. The main activities of this project are to acquire 3D seismic data, drill a geologic characterization (stratigraphic test) well, conduct a pipeline front-end engineering and design (FEED) study, prepare North Dakota underground injection control (UIC) Class VI permit applications, and generate National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation such as an environmental information volume (EIV) and subsequent environmental assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). In addition, the project team will identify societal considerations and impacts of the proposed research, including both positive and negative impacts on disadvantaged communities and subpopulations, and develop and implement region-specific plans to engage communities and stakeholders.

Raytheon Technologies Research Center (RTRC) is partnering with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California Irvine, and the University of California Davis to research, develop, and demonstrate a cost-effective, energy-efficient, clean, and scalable process for separating oxygen from air. The project team will develop a novel sorbent/electrochemical looping technology that produces oxygen that is greater than 99% pure. The overall project objective is to demonstrate proof-of-concept at lab scale and use the results to project to the 5–50-megawatt-electric (MWe) range for hydrogen gasifiers. The system will be comprised of a stack of electrochemical flow cells fed tailored transition metal (TM) complexes. The project objectives include four major technical elements: (1) employ advanced computational methods to rapidly identify promising TM complexes that will capture oxygen when reduced and release oxygen when oxidized; (2) synthesize and rapidly screen promising TM complex sorbents identified by molecular modeling and expert chemical intuition; (3) design, build, and test small reactors that support rapid and efficient oxidation and reduction of TM complexes for oxygen capture and release; and (4) design large-scale reactors, study integration of the proposed air separation module into a hydrogen gasifier, and perform techno-economic analyses to quantify the potential of this technology.

The world’s oceans contain 150 times more carbon dioxide (CO₂) per unit volume than the atmosphere and are near infinite sources of alkaline cations (Ca: calcium, Mg: magnesium). The seawater electrolysis process can leverage the massive scale of the oceans and the power of electrochemistry to create a gigaton-scale CO₂ removal solution. In this process, seawater is electrochemically stimulated to: (1) trap CO₂ within mineral-carbonates, (2) produce alkaline mineral-hydroxides that ensure the absorption of additional CO₂ from the atmosphere when dissolved in seawater, and (3) produce hydrogen gas, a clean fuel, as a co-product. The primary objective of this project is to design, engineer, and fabricate a first-of-a-kind 100-kW flow electrolyzer for simultaneous atmospheric CO₂ removal and hydrogen co-production. Following fabrication, the electrolyzer will be installed at AltaSea, in the Port of Los Angeles using a realistic seawater supply. Once installed the electroyler will be tested for six-months to assess key aspects of process energy intensity, operability, and technoeconomics relevant to streamline and catalyze manufacturability, commercialization and decarbonization at scale. The project team will develop a U.S.-based manufacturing strategy for high-volume fabrication of electrolyzer modules and their integration into commercial-scale CO₂ removal plants for large-scale, cost-effective carbon management.

Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan) is supporting the Regional Initiative to Accelerate Carbon Management Deployment to reduce the risks associated with commercial-scale geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂), advance the understanding of carbon management technology within communities, and ensure the long-term, safe, and equitable storage of CO₂.

The project will focus on the Michigan Basin and consists of four main technical tasks, (1) development of a Societal Considerations and Impact (SCI) Plan, (2) mapping of the geographic areas of interest, (3) assessment of the confining units, and (4) development of a wellbore integrity assessment tool.

The SCI plan will consist of carrying out community and stakeholder engagement plans, evaluation of disadvantaged and environmental justice communities, and development of community benefit portfolio plans. Mapping of the geographic areas of interest will be done by compiling existing geographic data to develop a comprehensive database and detailed maps of the storage reservoirs and brine disposal reservoirs. Assessment of the confining units will be done by analyzing existing geologic data and gathering and producing new data that will be used to map and evaluate the confining systems immediately overlying the key reservoirs. The wellbore integrity assessment tool will be created to help identify wells with leakage risk. The tool will be developed by integrating wellbore data with the produced confining system and reservoir maps.

Anticipated outcomes of this project consist of a database of geomechanical and lithological data, a wellbore integrity assessment tool, and an integrated user-friendly tool for geologic and societal considerations assessments.

The Prairie Horizon Carbon Management Hub project team will provide technical assistance and facilitate public engagement in support of creation of a regional carbon management hub (HUB) in North Dakota. Technical assistance includes evaluation of geologic data collected within the project area to better understand reservoir characteristics and infrastructure needs associated with the development of the HUB. Public engagement efforts consist of collaborations with stakeholders, including those from nearby communities as well as the broader technical community.

The overall objective of this research project is to maintain and continue to develop the ongoing monitoring of methane emissions from the Delaware portion of the Permian oil and gas production basin in order to estimate total basinal methane emissions on a monthly basis. This will be achieved through a network of five communications tower-based and mountain-top methane concentration measurements encircling the basin, currently in operation. These measurement towers have been in place since March 2020 and are located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Hobbs, Notrees, and Fort Stockton.

These in-situ instruments continuously measure methane concentrations over the Delaware sub-basin. The project team will continue the operation of this methane concentration measurement network, observe trends in methane (CH4) emissions, and compare the results collected with more publicly accessible numerical modeling tools. The team will transition the monitoring system to High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR)/Hysplit and begin reporting basin-wide methane emissions. The emissions will be estimated by combining the methane concentration measurements with a first prediction of emissions based on the locations and type of oil and gas extraction activity in the basin, an analysis of atmospheric transport based on a numerical weather prediction model that assimilates atmospheric observations, and a Bayesian matrix inversion.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells¹ (MCWs) within the state of Illinois by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

Marginal Conventional Well – Idle or producing onshore vertical or slightly deviated oil or natural gas well (excludes highly deviated or horizontal wells) with a known owner / operator producing less than or equal to 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOED) and/or 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) gas per day (1 BOE = 6 Mcf) over the prior 12-month period.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations.

The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

Marginal Conventional Well – Idle or producing onshore vertical or slightly deviated oil or natural gas well (excludes highly deviated or horizontal wells) with a known owner / operator producing less than or equal to 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOED) and/or 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) gas per day (1 BOE = 6 Mcf) over the prior 12-month period.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project is expected to result in methane and other greenhouse gas emission reductions and provide environmental benefits through the restoration of MCW pads. These activities are expected to mitigate legacy air pollution from MCWs in low-income and disadvantaged communities and provide potential benefits to such communities, including improved ambient air quality, surface and groundwater quality, climate resilience, and human health as well as creation of high-quality jobs.

The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells¹ (MCWs) within the state of Illinois by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

1 Marginal Conventional Well – Idle or producing onshore vertical or slightly deviated oil or natural gas well (excludes highly deviated or horizontal wells) with a known owner / operator producing less than or equal to 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOED) and/or 90 thousand cubic feet (Mcf) gas per day (1 BOE = 6 Mcf) over the prior 12-month period.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize marginal conventional wells (MCWs) for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project is expected to result in methane and other greenhouse gas emission reductions and provide environmental benefits through the restoration of MCW pads. These activities are expected to mitigate legacy air pollution from MCWs in low-income and disadvantaged communities and provide potential benefits to such communities, including improved ambient air quality, surface and groundwater quality, climate resilience, and human health as well as creation of high-quality jobs.

The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Monitoring can include detection and measurement of methane emissions used to provide a preliminary screening of emissions from MCWs as a mechanism to inform plugging prioritization. Monitoring must include measurement of methane emissions (in accordance with the DOE methane measurement guidelines for MCWs) prior to and following the plugging and abandonment of any MCW, quantification of the methane emissions mitigated for plugged wells, and verification that plugged wells are no longer emitting methane emissions as required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. Stakeholder engagement and outreach are key to this project, and it is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will result in substantial benefits with specific impact on disadvantaged communities.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project is expected to result in methane and other greenhouse gas emission reductions and provide environmental benefits through the restoration of MCW pads. These activities are expected to mitigate legacy air pollution from MCWs in low-income and disadvantaged communities and provide potential benefits to such communities, including improved ambient air quality, surface and groundwater quality, climate resilience, and human health as well as creation of high-quality jobs.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non‐Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre‐ and post‐plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations.

The Utah Division of Air Quality will reduce methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) in Uintah County, UT and Duchesne County, UT, known as the “Uinta Basin.” The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from MCWs by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non-Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre- and post-plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations. The project will develop a process and methodology to identify and prioritize MCWs for permanent plugging and abandonment, monitor (via discrete measurements) methane emissions from MCWs, and support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations.

The objective of this project is to mitigate methane emissions from marginal conventional wells (MCWs) by assisting operators/well owners to voluntarily and permanently plug and abandon MCWs on non‐Federal lands and measure methane emissions from MCWs both pre‐ and post‐plugging operations. This project may also support elements of environmental restoration required for full compliance with applicable State or Federal well plugging and abandonment standards and regulations.

West Virginia University (WVU), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and their industrial partners OxEon Energy LLC and Tallgrass MLP Operations LLC will conduct a conceptual design and feasibility study of a proposed integrated process for producing green methanol (MeOH). The proposed process includes: (i) a novel building-based direct air capture (DAC) process; (ii) a functionalized sorbent offering high equilibrium loading capacity and very low pressure drop, thus enabling use of HVAC systems; (iii) solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) to produce carbon-free hydrogen; (iv) a novel catalyst enabling high heat transfer rates and high reaction rates, thus lowering the reaction temperature and increasing single pass conversion of the MeOH synthesis reaction by approximately 5% compared to traditional CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 catalysts; and (v) a highly integrated process that utilizes building hot air return and heat recovery from reactor effluent for regeneration heat for the DAC sorbent, utilizes steam generated in the reactor, and utilizes electrolyzer product streams for superheating of the steam generated in the reactor, thus generating the entire amount of superheated steam for P-SOEC. In addition to conceptual design and optimization of the proposed process, this project will also include development of a preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA), life cycle analysis (LCA), Technology Maturation Plan (TMP), environmental health and safety (EH&S) analysis, technology gap analysis (TGA), and Community Benefits Plan (CBP) package. The key outcome will be a highly integrated and optimized process with state-of-the-art technologies for DAC, electrolysis, and MeOH synthesis, leading to cost-efficient production of greater than 99.7% pure green MeOH with maximum utilization of net carbon dioxide (CO₂) and minimum environmental footprint.

This project seeks to develop a novel process called TRACER (Electrochemical Removal of Carbon Dioxide from Oceanwater) and perform a field validation of the TRACER technology to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from oceanwater through electrochemical reactions. The proposed technology is based on a benign and simple electrolytic process that features a large and durable carbon storage capacity that takes advantage of readily available ions/species (e.g., Ca2+, Mg2+, dissolved and speciated CO₂ reactants) that are already present in oceanwater. TRACER stores both dissolved CO₂ (already in seawater) and atmospheric CO₂ as solid carbonates and/or aqueous bicarbonates/carbonates via the in-situ electrolysis of water. The project objective is focused on thoroughly refining the conceptual design of the TRACER process before it could be considered for scale-up and field validation testing.

The University of Houston (UH), in partnership with the University of Michigan (UM), will develop scalable and cost-effective electrochemical tubes to efficiently remove dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from seawater. The proposed approach will utilize efficient, durable, cost-effective, and environmentally benign electrode materials to form a membrane-less system that is both modular and scalable. The modularity and scalability of this system will allow it to be easily deployed to existing on-shore (e.g., desalination plants) and off-shore (e.g., oil rigs) infrastructure. Successful development of the proposed system will yield continuous operation for 100 hours under synthetic and real seawater with a DIC removal efficiency of greater than 80%, facilitating cost-effective deployments of electrochemical technology for abiotic ocean-based capture.

This project will fill subsurface knowledge gaps in the San Juan Basin and Four Corners region that are needed to enable the deployment of carbon management activities, including Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) for emission mitigation efforts within the industrial and power sectors. The knowledge gaps will be filled through six project objectives. The first objective is to collect, analyze, and disseminate data. The analyzed data will be used to ensure the safe capture, removal, efficient injection, storage, and monitoring of carbon dioxide in the San Juan Basin and Four Corners region. The second objective is to obtain, reprocess, interpret, and analyze existing seismic data to understand the structural history of the western margin of the San Juan Basin. Additionally, the seismic data will be used to implement seismic de-risking measures pertaining to CCUS activities. The third project objective is to improve the current geological model of the region by integrating newly interpreted seismic data with previously interpreted seismic and well log data. The improved geologic model will be used to identify fault locations and determine the three-dimensional characteristics of the Hogback monocline. The project's fourth objective is to characterize the present day heat flow and thermal regime of the San Juan Basin as well as its thermal tectonic history and temperature variations in relation to reservoir characteristics. The fifth objective is to perform the following: a probabilistic resource assessment of the San Juan Basin, a quantitative estimation of porosity and permeability, and an investigation into the storage of produced water as a means of pressure management. The sixth objective is to promote environmental justice and perform outreach activities and give an education to industry stakeholders, communities, and the public on CCUS.

The objective of this project is to design an integrated bench-scale prototype to advance an integrated process design concept, comprising of an innovative Direct Air Capture (DAC) process integrated with carbon-free hydrogen production via H₂O electrolysis and a robust CO₂-based methanol synthesis catalyst to produce carbon-negative methanol. The tasks required to achieve this objective include the development of an integrated process design of at least 10 kg/day methanol production unit by sizing the DAC, water electrolysis, and methanol synthesis subsystems for potential detailed component design, construction, and operation; the development of a detailed process model will be developed by integrating an existing DAC process model with CO₂ purification, water purification, water electrolyzer, and methanol synthesis process models to simulate the fully integrated process and determine the overall energy requirements; as well as performing a preliminary Technoeconomic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and determining the feasibility of reaching a target methanol production cost of less than $800 per tonne based on a conceptual 4,000 tonne per year (TPY) methanol synthesis process model. Additionally, an R&D Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed, which will take steps to achieve DOE goals of Community Engagement, Diversity Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), Quality Jobs, and Justice40.

TDA Research, in collaboration with Verde Clean Fuels, SLB, and the University of Colorado Denver (UCD), proposes to complete a conceptual design study for an integrated direct air capture and carbon dioxide utilization system (DACUS) that captures and utilizes carbon dioxide (CO₂) in an integrated methanol (MeOH) synthesis unit. The CO₂ captured from air is reacted with renewable hydrogen (H₂) to produce “green” MeOH with negative CO₂ emissions. The energy needed for the direct air capture (DAC) of CO₂ is provided by utilizing waste/low-grade heat from the MeOH synthesis process. The MeOH is produced using Verde Clean Fuel’s STG+® Process with very high per-pass completion (more than 99.5%), forming very low amounts of methane (CH₄) byproduct. The elimination of the undesired side reactions and the high per-pass conversion achieved by the improved heat management in the MeOH synthesis reactor minimizes the amount of the gas recycle and the associated purging to control the concentration of inerts, which improves the process efficiency and reduces the cost of methanol.

The objective of this project is to design an integrated system that deploys a novel electrochemical direct air capture (DAC) process, low-cost water (H₂O), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) electrolysis to produce a stream of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H₂), and CO₂ that will be fed to a catalytic reactor to produce carbon-neutral methanol (MeOH). The project will target an MeOH production cost of $800/tonne based on 1,000 tonnes of annual MeOH production. Success will yield a comprehensive system design of an integrated process for cost-effective carbon-neutral MeOH synthesis from CO₂ removed from air by DAC and carbon-free hydrogen.

To address the challenge of achieving a durable and scalable carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal process at less than $100/tonne, the recipient will develop a depolarized electrochemical reactor (DER) for influent ocean water acidification and carbon unloading leading to concentrated CO₂ production and simultaneous ocean water basicity enhancement for abiotic ocean capture (AOC). The project will target three primary objectives to accomplish this goal. The first objective is to develop a feasibility and conceptual study that includes detailed guidelines for the following items: (1) site identification and selection, (2) major equipment specifications, (3) preliminary facility design and general arrangement, (4) cost estimates, and (5) pilot-project schedule. The second objective is to design and validate the performance of a process for producing a CO₂ stream with greater than or equal to 95% purity at less than or equal to 1.8 volts in a DER featuring catalytic electrodes, ohmic loss suppression, and bipolar architecture. The final objective is to evaluate the technical, economic, environmental, and societal impacts of the proposed technology.

The Methanol from Integrated Direct Air Capture and Ceramic Electrolysis (MIDACE) project will advance a novel system concept for combining crude carbon dioxide (CO₂) cleanup, hydrogen production, and partial CO₂ reduction steps within a carbon-tolerant, high-temperature electrolyzer to produce sub-$800/tonne methanol via containerized electrochemical and chemical systems in conjunction with passive direct-air carbon capture towers. The design lowers costs by simplifying the methanol recovery cycle, reducing carbon losses from venting, reducing sensitivity to catalyst selectivity, and potentially avoiding syngas compression. Passive capture using waste heat from the synthesis reactor and solid-oxide electrolysis could prove critical for transitioning the rapidly growing $25 billion industry to sustainable green methanol (MeOH) production. The Phase I, 12-month technical period of performance will assess the technical performance and community impact of MeOH production using proven techno-economic and life cycle assessment techniques.

The main objective of this project is to develop a conceptual design of 1) an Air2Fuel system that produces 1000 tonne methanol (MeOH) per year from DAC CO2 and carbon-free H₂, and 2) a movable lab-scale Air2Fuel system. The work will include several intermediate technical objectives, i.e., optimizing heat recovery from green H₂ production and MeOH synthesis to drive DAC sorbent regeneration, integrating novel process components and equipment to reduce power consumption, consolidating unit process operations (e.g., CO₂/H₂ compressors), and optimizing thermal integration and assessing renewable energy integration. TEA/LCA of the conceptual full-scale Air2Fuel system will evaluate a pathway to $800/tonne carbon-neutral MeOH.

The project hosts a community engagement workshop focusing on energy transition and alternative fuels that will inform potential commercial deployment sites for energy and environmental justice assessments. The team assesses workforce needs with key industry partners that will inform new workforce development curricula focusing on industry-led skills to enable high-quality career-building/sustaining jobs in those communities.

The project will model, design, and validate the processes and potential fabrication methods of an ocean-based abiotic carbon capture technology (“DeCarbonHIX”) that uses seawater to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO₂) while reversing CO₂-induced seawater acidification. Phase I project activities will serve to design and de-risk the pilot-scale DeCarbonHIX system for deployment in the follow-up Phase II program. Primary objectives include: (1) use system modeling to provide a basis for benchmarking the DeCarbonHIX system against other carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, including state-of-the-art direct ocean CO₂ capture; (2) fabricate and test a sub-scale sorbent capture bed and weak-acid generation system to demonstrate the CO₂ capture abilities, efficiency, operation, and electrical consumption of the system; and (3) identify and gather a complete development and deployment team for the follow-up Phase II pilot-scale study.

Ocean Energy will perform conceptual design studies to integrate the Naval Research Laboratory Electrolytic Cation Exchange Module (E-CEM) system within the Ocean Energy Buoy wave energy converter to develop a coherent field validation of the combined ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) system. The utilization of the wave-powered electricity directly reduces the external auxiliary power requirements for the CDR process. Ocean Energy will evaluate the costs for the system with a view to optimizing the system and developing to large commercial scale to make a significant contribution to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carbon Negative Shot targets of less than $100/net tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) removed.

Ebb Carbon will investigate how ocean alkalinity enhancement using electrochemically produced aqueous sodium hydroxide can be used to benefit ecosystems including commercial aquaculture harmed by ocean acidification. In Phase 1, Ebb Carbon will design an optimized system to electrochemically produce, pre-equilibrate, and deploy alkalinity in field studies. The project team will design experiments to evaluate effects of alkalinity enhancement on shellfish species and other species across multiple trophic levels.

GE Vernova Advanced Research (GEVAR) will execute a conceptual design and feasibility study to integrate a direct air capture (DAC) system, which captures carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air, with a solid-oxide co-electrolysis system (SOCC), which combines the captured CO₂ with air and water, in order to produce hydrogen (H₂)/carbon monoxide (CO, syngas) that can then be converted into methanol (MeOH) using commercially available catalysts. The purity and H₂:CO ratio of the system will be determined to match the requirements of the MeOH reactor. The recipient team will examine two different commercially available catalysts and determine which system will work best for the approximately 3 gal/day system. The recipient team will work together to design the most efficient reactor, using the selected catalyst system and process conditions.

AirCapture LLC will design, construct, and operate a process for the production of carbon-neutral methanol (MeOH) from carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured from air via an integrated system of direct air capture (DAC) and electrochemical MeOH production. This will be achieved through the following activities: (1) conduct a conceptual design and feasibility study with a technology gap analysis on the proposed direct air capture and carbon utilization (DACCU) integrated process to produce carbon-neutral MeOH from atmospheric CO₂; (2) build and conduct integrated system lab-scale validation of the DACCU system; (3) perform a cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) to determine the environmental sustainability and cost-effectiveness of the technology; (4) quantify how deployment of the proposed technology will promote and prepare a ready workforce for clean energy and manufacturing jobs and coordinate with community stakeholders to develop a Quality Jobs Plan, a Diversity Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Plan, a Justice40 Plan Development Proposal, and a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Plan Development Proposal.

The University of Tennessee will develop a detailed systems modeling and design of an integrated direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) system, an intermediate temperature CO₂-to-carbon-monoxide (CO) electrolyzer, and a CO-to-methanol (MeOH) catalytic bed reactor. Phase I of this project will involve optimization of each of these components and will include systems engineering designs for a unified reactor with each component transitioning from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 to TRL 4. Ultimately, hydrogen will be produced onsite with a water electrolyzer, and all power and heating inputs will be derived from energy that is generated from renewable sources. The MeOH that is produced will derive from CO₂ and will have an overall negative carbon footprint at a target price below $800/tonne at scale. The deployment of the proposed technology will promote and prepare a ready workforce for clean energy and manufacturing jobs and the project will develop a Quality Jobs Plan; a Diversity Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Plan; a Justice40 Plan Development Proposal; and a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

Captura Corporation will develop a conceptual design of an up to 1,000 ton-carbon dioxide (CO₂)/year integrated abiotic direct ocean capture (DOC) system that includes water intake/outfall, pre-filtration systems, high-performance electrodialysis system, and gas-liquid contactor-based CO₂ stripping system for a future deployment on an offshore gas/oil platform. Captura’s DOC technology involves a highly efficient electrochemical pH-swing-based system (EpHs) that extracts high-purity CO₂ from the dissolved inorganic carbon in oceanwater and returns de-carbonized oceanwater back to the ocean with no byproducts.

The scope of work for the project will include a techno-economic analysis (TEA); a life cycle analysis (LCA); engineering assessment of the DOC technology’s synergy and coupling with a variety of offshore platforms and storage sites; optimization of the EpHs approach; assessment of the marine ecosystem impacts of the system’s decarbonized oceanwater; and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of the CO₂-drawdown at the air/oceanwater interface.

The University of North Dakota Environmental Research Center (UND EERC) will develop the conceptual design of a hydrolytic softening process for ocean carbon dioxide removal (CDR). The design will incorporate energy-saving hydrolytic lime regeneration integrated with an ocean precipitation reactor, which can be used as a near-term, scalable, and cost-effective method to draw down legacy carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions that have been absorbed in the oceans. The conceptual design will be developed in preparation for a potential field validation of the system and data collected during the project will be used to substantiate cost projections, as well as to identify potential offshore benefits that may result in cost-saving and/or cost-sharing opportunities. In addition, a multidisciplinary team will be assembled and a regulatory and permitting analysis will be conducted, which may be necessary for the potential field validation. Further assessments will be performed, such as a preliminary techno-economic analysis, life cycle analysis, technology maturation plan, technology gap analysis, environmental health and safety analysis, and an evaluation of the societal considerations and impacts of the technology.

Research Triangle Institute (RTI), in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Casale, and Creare, will develop a novel process consisting of three key innovations. The first is a passive Direct Air Capture (DAC) contactor optimized for low pressure drop, wind-driven operation. The second is a dynamic green methanol (MeOH) synthesis process, which has high conversion efficiencies and low production costs while minimizing on-site storage of H₂. This process includes a novel catalyst for one-step conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to MeOH in a state-of-the-art plate-cooled isothermal reactor configuration that allows for load-following dynamic operation. The third innovation involves heat integration to provide synergistic regeneration energy for DAC.

Activities to successfully develop this process include: modeling and design of a DAC system that can capture at least 20 kg/day CO₂; sizing and detailed mechanical design for the air contactor unit; detailed process simulations of carbon-neutral MeOH synthesis from H₂ and CO₂ captured from air; selection of optimized parameters for CO₂, from DAC, and MeOH synthesis; completion of a process intensification, including heat integration, in Aspen Plus; and performing a Technoeconomic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) based on all collected data during the period of performance. Additionally, an R&D Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed, which will take steps to achieve DOE goals of Community Engagement, Diversity Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), Quality Jobs, and Justice40.

E2H2NANO LLC, in partnership with the University at Buffalo and Washington University in St. Louis, will (1) conceptually design a compact, modular, and high-yield membrane reactor process for carbon-neutral methanol synthesis using carbon dioxide (CO₂) from direct air capture (DAC) and carbon-free hydrogen (H₂); (2) demonstrate the feasibility of the integrated process by performing techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA); and (3) fabricate and operate the integrated lab-scale system (1 kg methanol/day) for more than two months in Phase 2. The proposed technology builds on three previously U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-supported technologies: DAC using trapped small amines in hierarchical nanoporous capsules (DE-FE0031969), carbon-free hydrogen (H₂) production via proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (DE-SC0007574), and dehydration membrane reactor for methanol synthesis from CO₂ and H₂ (DE-AR0000806 and DE-FE0031909).

The objective of this project is to build a database using existing subsurface, surface, and societal data for entities screening areas of Illinois for commercial geologic carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage. Sub-objectives are to; 1) test the database using play-based exploration and analyses methods to create composite maps that clearly delineate areas in the state with the lowest risk for storage site development, 2) share the database with the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the original Regional Initiative projects, and Recipients un DE-FOA-0002799, and 3) provide the public with access to the database and resulting composite maps, specifically those screening Illinois for commercial storage sites or those potentially impacted by the development of such sites.

The Alabama Carbon Storage: Data Sharing and Engagement Project (Project) seeks to compile geologic, geophysical, infrastructure, and other relevant datasets for the Gulf Coastal Plain of Alabama through the development of a geologic model of the study area. The Geological Survey of Alabama and partnering organizations will develop an online platform to serve data to stakeholders, and to engage with the public, students, and industry to educate them about Carbon Capture and Storage. Additionally, the Project will integrate Environmental Justice considerations into all aspects of the project.

The purpose of this work is to develop the scientific understanding and processing technologies to enable safe, efficient conversion of domestic carbon ores and waste coals to high-value products including graphitic carbon fibers for composites, and anode-grade graphite powders for energy storage. Building on prior work in collaboration with ORNL, this project will scale up processing to the semi-production scale, which will allow for production of sufficient quantities of materials to investigate relevant industrial processing including multifilament melt spinning of fibers and anode powder classification for batteries.

The main objective of the Central Appalachian Partnership for Carbon Storage Deployment Project is to reduce barriers for entry to carbon storage project opportunities, particularly in the deepest parts of the Appalachian basin. Meeting this Project’s objective will help to accelerate the deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Project will build upon CCUS characterization efforts for the Appalachian basin and combine the expertise of two state geological surveys, 1. The Pennsylvania Geological Survey, and 2. The West Virginial Geological and Economic Survey. The Project will engage regional stakeholders and technical assistance partners. Additionally, the Project will contribute to value-added technical and geologic information to the regional knowledge base. Project deliverables will become significant resources for CCUS deployment in the Appalachian Region.

The objective of The Oklahoma Geological Survey Coordination of Mid-continent Carbon Management project (Project) is to provide an assessment of geological carbon storage opportunities in Oklahoma (OK) by integrating new and existing core and borehole data with subsurface imaging and coordinating all work with applicable Regional Initiatives. The Project will work to complete geologic assessments and monitoring trial deployments to improve a web-based geologic data repository for OK. Data acquisition will include gathering seismic data from an array of stationary seismometers and collecting pressure monitoring data from an array of downhole monitoring apparatuses. The project will assess deep saline aquifers in OK for carbon dioxide storage, with particular attention to Arbuckle and non-Arbuckle targets. Additionally, the Project will develop a local community engagement program around carbon management in OK and will encourage further carbon management and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) activities through developing and providing capacity building at the state-agency level.

The Indiana Geological and Water Survey (IGWS), housed within Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana), is supporting the Regional Initiative to Accelerate Carbon Management Deployment through this Project by helping to reduce the risks associated with commercial-scale geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂), advance the understanding of carbon management technologies within communities, and ensure the long-term, safe, and equitable storage of CO₂. The project will identify and evaluate areas in Indiana with saline reservoirs that exhibit favorable geologic parameters for carbon sequestration. Focus Areas will be identified and evaluated via the compilation, digitization, and analysis of new and historic subsurface data; laboratory analysis of existing geologic samples; comprehensive geologic characterization; development of new maps and updates to existing maps essential for carbon storage decision-making; and evaluation of the legislative, societal, and infrastructural conditions that impact the Focus Areas. This collected data will be utilized to quantify the storage capacity of the system, characterize the shallow subsurface to understand risk from unintended migration, and develop a Community Benefits Plan for each area based on community engagement feedback. Data findings will be consolidated into a publicly available GIS database. The GIS database will provide crucial information needed for CO₂ hub siting, as well as initial recommendations for areas in Indiana that may be best suited for geothermal production, hydrogen storage, and CO₂ storage activities.

This project is establishing a foundation for carbon capture and storage (CCS) by addressing technical challenges, environmental factors, and stakeholder engagement to meet the need for development of an offshore hub in the Cook Inlet region of Alaska. The project is assisting industry and communities in evaluating the viability of storage scenarios and identifying environmentally and socially sensitive areas. To accomplish this, the project team is gathering, analyzing, and sharing data to inform development of large-scale storage facilities; engaging state and federal agency databases, researchers, and publications to assess regionally available data; and developing a data distribution plan and portal for the State of Alaska to share information, research, outreach materials, and regulations regarding carbon storage.

The Utah Statewide Carbon Storage Assessment: Geological Data Gathering, Analysis, Sharing, and Engagement Project (Project) will work to aggregate, analyze, and disseminate organized and accurate geological data for the carbon storage (CS) aspect of carbon management in the state of Utah. The Project covers the entire state of Utah with a focus on specific regions highlighted following initial characterization work. The overarching objective of the project is to develop publicly available comprehensive datasets to support the characterization and interpretation of CS resources at both regional and site-specific scales in the state of Utah. The developed datasets will also note societal and environmental impacts of CS for the state of Utah.

This project will complete a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study of a carbon dioxide (CO₂) pipeline capable of transporting up to 250 Million Metric Tons (MMT) of CO₂ annually to locations along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. The FEED study will integrate multiple CO₂ source hubs and emission clusters along the route, creating access to onshore and offshore geologic storage sites that would not otherwise exist. The project team will utilize industry standard practices to identify the optimal routing for the pipeline and engineering design of the transport network. Routing will consider existing rights-of-way, stakeholder needs and concerns, and potential CO₂ sources and sinks.

This project is studying the multiphase flow behavior related to the transportation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and impurities. The flow behavior of CO₂ is being investigated for injection wells and through pipelines. To accomplish this, the project is investigating and evaluating flow models for well injection and pipeline transport; preparing a mesoscale test bed for CO₂ flow experiments; and investigating multiphase of CO₂ and impurities under various configurations, targeting problematic flow regimes.

The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a Carbon Hub Roadmap for Project WyoTCH. The Roadmap has two key aims. First, it will be used by the development team to develop a sustainable open-access carbon hub, and to help develop a feasible business case, design the carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure (where, when, and how to capture, transport, and store carbon dioxide [CO₂], including uncertainty and sensitivity analysis), raise financing, and construct and operate the hub. Second, it will serve as a blueprint or set of lessons learned to support the development of other open-access carbon hubs across the nation, with emphasis on a template for proactive, authentic community stakeholder engagement. The Roadmap will be developed in collaboration with communities and stakeholder groups and disseminated through a variety of mediums, including U.S. Department of Energy workshops.

The project is developing a geologic site characterization database, called the Wyoming Class VI Site Characterization Database, to expedite Underground Injection Control Class VI permitting for potential carbon storage hubs in southwest Wyoming’s Greater Green River Basin. Specifically, the project will build a database of information compiled and verified from established, public geologic databases/entities, and provide a record of key social considerations and community benefits which developers should address or consider when preparing Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI applications.

The overall objective of this project is to develop a lower cost, CO₂ free, H₂ production via CH₄ Pyrolysis in a liquid tin bubble column reactor. In order to achieve this, the primary goal of the proposed project is to successfully design, model and demonstrate a continuous reactor that operates with 100% methane, at 1400-1500°C to achieve full conversion of methane to hydrogen and solid carbon. A second goal of the project is to address an important issue associated with scalability. The first-generation reactor, based on this approach, that was previously developed by the project team used heating elements positioned outside the reactor walls, thereby providing the heat to the reactor directly. Although this works well in a small -scale reactor, it would be problematic at larger scales i.e., > 1 m diameter, because of the conductive resistance between the center of the reactor and the outside walls, where it would be heated. To attempt to overcome this limitation, researchers propose to employ a more scalable approach that uses the liquid metal to distribute the heat by mechanically pumping it. By pumping colder liquid metal out of the bottom of the reactor, and distributing hot metal more evenly at the top, the temperature profile can be more carefully managed. The third goal of the project is to demonstrate that the sensible heat in the H₂ byproduct can be recuperated. To do this cost effectively and in a power dense way, a direct contact heat exchanger, termed a liquid droplet heat exchanger (LDHX), will be used. LDHXs have been designed and tested previously for space applications with great success but a terrestrial version that is gravity driven (for which a prototype will be developed under this effort) has not been demonstrated. This demonstration of a first of a kind prototype gravity driven LDHX between liquid metal and H₂ is an important technical barrier to cross towards commercialization of the approach under this project.

The Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center (METEC) is a unique and renowned test and research facility for emissions leak detection and quantification (LDAQ) technology development, field demonstration, hands-on LDAQ equipment training, and protocol and best practices development. The METEC facility is operated by Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado, on CSU’s Foothills Campus.

This five-year project extends the unique capability of METEC, a well-recognized DOE-funded asset, to facilitate the rapid development and deployment of “next generation” methane emissions detection and quantification technology solutions, helping to effectively drive industry efforts to mitigate natural gas and oil related methane emissions and improving operational pipeline integrity and resiliency. Expansion of METEC to include testing at more complex facilities, including large midstream compressor stations and offshore platforms, will provide important leak detection and quantification (LDAQ) solution performance assessment capabilities at a time when both regulatory and industry efforts to address emissions are rapidly growing. Through the project’s expansion of METEC capabilities to include hydrogen emissions LDAQ, DOE is providing an important tool for supporting a thoughtful and efficient transition to a future hydrogen economy. By initiating research and development on hydrogen LDAQ now, METEC, DOE, and other stakeholders are proactively addressing a potential future environmental and safety concern.

Long-term durability of metal-base structural components under high-temperature hydrogen-containing environments is one of the non-negligible subjects to establish the hydrogen-base society, especially for energy production sectors. The study will aggressively raise the bottom line of the materials performance required under hydrogen exposure, by considering survival of structural components in such harsh environments through newly proposed alloy design strategy. By combining additive manufacturing (AM) technology with wire-direct energy deposition (DED), a rapid deployment of structural components is highly expected.

The project team will demonstrate an integrated framework for a direct air capture (DAC) system for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, regeneration processes, and utilization. The scope of the work involves the evaluation of different regeneration processes and integration strategies in the DAC platform to the building equipment and the identification of opportunities and challenges associated with the closed-loop DAC platform.

This project is establishing a foundation for carbon capture and storage (CCS) by addressing technical challenges, analyzing environmental factors, and facilitating stakeholder engagement to meet the need for development of a mid-Atlantic offshore hub. The project is evaluating the viability of multiple design scenarios through developing and executing plans for community benefits activities, defining realistic carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage resources, affirming injection scenarios, and building site characterization plans. Accomplishing these tasks requires collaborating with industry to build on prior data collection and analysis; evaluating CO₂ transport scenarios; source-sink matching; analyzing environmental factors, offshore infrastructure scenarios, and policy/regulatory gaps; and conducting workshops and outreach to key policy and regulatory stakeholders. The project team includes Battelle, Aker Solutions, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Maryland Geological Survey, Rutgers, TRC Companies Inc., Holcim, and TGS.

Northwestern University and project partners aim to explore the feasibility of a nuclear-powered direct air capture (DAC) hub (co-located with Constellation’s 1-GW Clinton nuclear power plant) in the Midwest. The feasibility of the ownership structure, business model, carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage/utilization option(s), and technology partner(s) will be explored during Phase 0.

The feasibility study will evaluate and develop a model for how the main efforts can be integrated to establish the regional DAC hub. These efforts include:

1. Selecting DAC technology from available candidates.
2. Identifying and securing CO₂ storage sites.
3. Determining the integration of conversion technology.
4. Partnering with infrastructure providers that provide power, heat and/or other utilities to run the DAC and conversion technologies.
5. Selecting the DAC hub owner and team, site location, CO₂ transport routes and CO₂ storage sites for the pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study to be completed in Phase 0b.
6. Performing a pre-FEED study (i.e., Class IV estimate with expected cost accuracy of +/- 30% and project definition maturity of at least 5%) for the initial DAC hub capacity (i.e., minimum 50,000 tonne/year [50 KTA] CO₂).
7. Performing DAC hub balance-of-plant (BOP) conceptual design, including utilities (e.g., sources for electricity, steam, water) and CO₂ transport for the final DAC hub capacity (i.e., minimum 1,000,000 tonne/year [1 MTA] CO₂).
8. Engaging financing providers, including parties equipped to monetize carbon credits.
9. Performing community; labor; and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) engagement.
10. Performing life cycle analysis (LCA).
11. Working with other key technical partners and consultants responsible for discrete aspects of DAC hub design, analysis, evaluation, construction, operation and analysis.

In this project, Aera Federal will develop and establish the technical and business feasibility of a Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub concept in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The project objectives include evaluating the technical and engineering integration required for the DAC Hub ecosystem, including carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, transport and permanent storage, as well as supporting infrastructure and resource requirements. The proposed DAC Hub will demonstrate the feasibility of the CarbonFrontier storage site for permanent storage of at least 1 million tonnes of CO₂ per year (MTA) for at least 12 years. Tasks that will be performed for successful completion of the project include development of a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP), development of business and financial plans, selection of an anchor DAC technology, performing an integrated preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study on the selected technology, performing a balance of plant (BOP) conceptual design for a 1-MTA hub, and performing a life cycle analysis (LCA). Additionally, a Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed, which will consider U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of community engagement; diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and Justice40.

The objective of the work by the University of Hawaii is to assess the feasibility of transforming the recently retired Applied Energy Services (AES) coal plant in Oahu into a battery energy storage system or small nuclear power plant. The work will include an evaluation of existing infrastructure, a technical feasibility assessment, an economic and environmental impact assessment, student training, and the development of an interactive mapping tool. A comprehensive site evaluation will identify existing infrastructure that could be used for a new facility and estimate the footprint of both the existing plant and transition options. Key stakeholders, including nearby communities, government agencies, environmental groups, and industry experts, will be identified to facilitate engagement and communication. An in-depth analysis of the technical feasibility of the plant into a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) or Small Modular Reactor (SMR) will be performed. The evaluation will consider multiple factors to determine the most suitable and technically feasible option that enhances electric grid security, reliability, and sustainability. An evaluation of the economic impact resulting from the transformation of the AES coal plant to both a BESS and SMR facility will be conducted to quantify the potential shifts in economic activity within Hawaii. Detailed data about the AES coal plant's economic contributions in 2021 encompassing employment, output, and income generated will be gathered and compared with the projected contributions from the BESS and SMR options.

The Red Rocks Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub is a geothermal, energy-driven DAC and storage hub proposed in southwest Utah. Access to reliable, non-variable, carbon-free heat and power, and the presence of geologic conditions suitable for permanent carbon storage, are primary economic drivers for DAC facilities. The primary objective of this work is to identify sites where there is a strong overlap between geothermal resource potential and the geologic conditions that are suitable for large-scale solubility trapping or more conventional stratigraphic, structural and mineral trapping. The project will also explore the integration of DAC technology with geothermal facilities for the purpose of capital expenditure reduction and performance optimization, demonstrate a pathway to commercially feasible scaling, and evaluate the community and environmental impacts of a potential large-scale project. Additionally, a Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed, which will consider U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of community Engagement; diversity equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and Justice40.

This project will study the geochemical characteristics of Acid mine drainage (AMD) fluids and treatment solids that are potential feedstocks for critical metals such as rare earth elements (REE), cobalt (Co), and other metals. The objectives are to: 1) Delineate the chemical speciation and mineral phase associations of these critical metals in AMD wastes; and 2) Evaluate the implications of these associations for the efficiency of extraction processes. This overarching objective will be achieved by collecting AMD treatment solids and raw drainage fluids from abandoned or inactive coal mine sites across northern Appalachia. These sites will be selected to represent the range of key water chemistry variables (e.g., major cation concentrations and pH) for REE-enriched fluids and AMD treatment systems. The Recipient will quantify bulk chemical characteristics of the samples, including elemental contents, mineralogy, and speciation of selected critical metals. The research will utilize state-of-the-art geochemical and elemental analysis techniques to discern molecular coordination states of critical metals in AMD feedstocks and evaluate mineral phase associations. These methods include advanced spectroscopic techniques to understand the micro- and nanoscale occurrence of critical metals and their respective host minerals. Critical metals extraction potential of the AMD solids will be evaluated with multiple types of lixiviants while recovery of REE from leachates will be assessed by liquid membrane extraction methods.

This project investigates a novel process that employs task-specific ionic liquids (ILs) in two stages to enhance the recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from coal refuse streams. The goal is to allow for cost-effective REE recovery from coal-based sources while reducing environmental footprints and addressing the challenges associated with the mineralogical characteristics of REE-bearing phases in such sources. In the first stage, a mechanochemical activation process assisted with ILs is used to selectively induce disorders in minerals associated with REEs. This assistance not only reduces energy consumption but also eliminates costly processes and aids in the decarbonization of the overall process. In the second stage, novel functional ILs are introduced to improve the loading capacity, kinetics, and separation factor in the solvent extraction process, contributing to more efficient recovery and lower environmental impacts.

The primary objective of this project is to explore the feasibility of leveraging the underutilized Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) for the distribution of clean hydrogen energy. The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) will perform a comprehensive study of TAPS' construction history and visualization of TAPS fossil asset conversion scope incorporating geographic information system (GIS) mapping activities. This will provide a greater understanding of the community decision-making process. A policy brief will be drafted to outline the technical and regulatory aspects of TAPS fossil asset conversion. Lifecycle analysis will be performed to assess the role of liquid hydrogen carriers in Alaska's decarbonization roadmap and their potential for reducing fugitive methane emissions rapidly. A cost model will be developed to estimate the production and delivery costs of liquid hydrogen carriers in remote environments. Proposed development options will be ranked based on various metrics including capital requirements, delivered energy costs, emissions, land use, and safety considerations in the context of decarbonization and climate change. Publications and workshop materials will be created to effectively disseminate public information about the project, ensuring that the community is well-informed about project goals, progress, and impacts, and thereby facilitating informed decision making.

The overall objective of this project is to cultivate the next generation of engineers and scientists, especially students from two Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), to fill the critical gaps in developing early-stage carbon-negative hydrogen production from the Earth’s subsurface and promote the research capacity of the two HSIs (Texas Tech University and the University of Houston). Three visiting scholars from TTU and UH will conduct on-site research and write publications at Stanford for one month per year for three years. The team will work together to characterize the ultramafic rock properties, investigate the reactions during CO₂ carbonation and H₂ generation through pore- to core-scale experiments and modeling, optimize the reservoir-scale performance, and examine the economic and environmental impacts of the proposed technology. It is expected that this early-stage, carbon-negative hydrogen production technology will be significantly improved with the technology readiness level (TRL) promoted from 2-3 to 5 by the completion of this project.

The project will examine the physiochemical properties and microstructures of coal-based materials (CBMs) and develop a novel technology that utilizes supercritical fluids to effectively extract, recover, and enrich rare earth elements (REEs) directly from solid phase CBMs in an environmentally benign manner. The project will also develop models for conceptual recovery pilot units and predict the performance of the recovery process while optimizing the process parameters.

The technical goal of this project is to develop a plasma-catalytic approach for converting sourced low-purity CO₂-contaminated methane (CH₄) into valuable commodity chemicals. It is envisioned that the proposed transformation can be accomplished by a combination of the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment with catalytic processing (Figure 1). On the social side, the project aims to develop maps of the technologically suitable land for the new technology siting in Eastern North Carolina, to estimate the potential impact of the technology on employment at alternative geographic scales, and to develop transferable, spatially explicit methodologies for evaluation of the socio-economic impact of conversion facilities sourcing methane from flooded lands.

The overall objective of this project is to investigate the influence of microstructure on the performance of advanced high strength steel pipeline alloys in blended gas environments containing hydrogen. Correspondingly, the appropriate hydrogen blending levels as a function of alloy and microstructure design strategy will be identified. Because the welding process locally alters the thermal history and thus local microstructure, this work will be conducted on both base metal and simulated weld heat affected zone microstructures, the latter of which is influenced by the alloy design strategy and thermal history induced by the welding process.

The Recipient will integrate a life cycle assessment (LCA) into the evaluation of steel pipeline performance. The LCA will have the objective of evaluating the potential environmental impact of utilizing higher strength pipelines for hydrogen transportation, with a particular focus on environmental and emissions savings and the associated impact on environmental justice. The Recipient will also execute on public engagement and a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) plan that will increase diversity amongst the project team and contractors via recruitment, foster a welcoming and inclusive environment amongst our project team members, and improve and document benefits and impacts to underserved and disadvantaged communities (DACs) in alignment with the Justice40 Initiative.

The overall objective of this project is to develop a small set of robust, high-performing ionic liquids (ILs) that can be deployed in an integrated system capable of: (1) efficient leaching/extraction/separation of rare earth elements (REEs) from coal fly ashes (CFAs), generating REE-rich IL phases separated from most bulk and trace elements; (2) effective electrodeposition for REE mixture (to achieve pure individual REE products); and (3) use of recyclable ILs in the processes. The goal is to achieve an integrated, recyclable system that will deliver high process efficiency as well as favorable environmental sustainability compared to conventional techniques. This project will also train many students in knowledge and skills of critical minerals recovery and management to enhance the preparation of future engineers and scientists in this field.

The overall objectives of the proposed work are to: (1) examine people's attitudes and beliefs about climate change and energy justice issues that may influence their decisions to adopt or avoid new clean energy products and support or oppose new climate change policies, (2) combine engineering and economic data and models to estimate the potential long-run climate and economic impacts and the value of private and public investments in experimental CO₂ conversion and other clean energy technologies, and (3) advance the development of experimental technologies for converting CO₂ to formic acid for use as a hydrogen carrier. This will be accomplished through controlled laboratory experiments to evaluate the reaction kinetics of novel catalysts, computational modeling to combine engineering and economic assessments of experimental CO₂ conversion technologies, and sociological and economics survey- and interview-based research on people's attitudes and preferences related to the efficiency and equity impacts of alternative clean energy technologies.

The University of Kentucky Research Foundation (UKy) will determine the feasibility of a distributed direct air capture (DAC) hub with centralized injection/storage in Eastern Kentucky with the UKy decoupled capture-regeneration direct-air carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal technology applied, powered by solar and biomass energy sources, stored in a depleted natural gas field.

Through this project, the team will start with Eastern Kentucky as the initial focus point to prove the feasibility of a DAC hub in the Appalachian states, establishing the template, procedure, methodology and recommendations for expansion to other Appalachian communities that traditionally rely on fossil fuel production. The centralized regeneration/storage, distributed capture and biomass electrical generation locations will be identified. The existing infrastructure, CO₂ storage potential, and information on economically distressed communities impacted will be surveyed; National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and permitting activities for a secure CO₂ storage site will be explored and identified. The preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA), safety, security and regulatory requirements will be evaluated and summarized. The integrated DAC system pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study will also be completed, including the finalized locations; technology selection; data tables; environmental, health and safety (E&HS); and security analysis and revised LCA using the renewable energy as power sources. The initial DAC hub pre-FEED capacity will be at least 50 KTA, with a target of 52.5 KTA (15 sets of DAC modules using UKy technology). The conceptual design for the final DAC hub will also be completed with a capacity of at least 1 MTA[J1] . Additionally, a Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed, which will take steps to achieve U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of community engagement; diversity equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and Justice40.

Society continues its transition towards energy efficiency using advanced technologies that rely on several rare earth elements (REEs) plus yttrium and scandium (REYs). Coal fly ash, a byproduct from combustion for generation of steam and electricity, presents an unconventional and widely available source of these elements. It is proposed that carboranyl ionic liquid solvents will address key issues facing current ionic liquids such as presenting a minimally water soluble extractant that is highly stable in acidic environments to improve recovery and reusability. The objective of this work is to utilize and improve known carboranyl ionic liquids (CILs) for the selective recovery of light, medium, or heavy REYs (specifically targeting critical REYs such as Nd, Dy, Eu, and Y). The scope of the project includes (1) feasibility and advancement of the technology for REYs recovery from coal ashes; and (2) leveraging mechanistic evaluations and machine learning to maximize CIL stability, minimize aqueous solubility, minimize viscosity, and improve REY selectivity. Functionalization of the CILs by halogenation (namely using F and Cl) or methylation at boron vertexes will afford means to reduce the aqueous solubility of the CIL while tuning its basicity, tentatively affording selectivity for light, medium, and heavy REYs.

A major goal of this project will be to establish a mechanism and extraction process of REY complexation by CILs and the ion pair formation energies between ionic liquids and REYs. Machine learning will be employed to aid REY recovery and selectivity efforts. Models will be developed to simulate ionic liquids using the DeepMD approach. Coupling mechanistic evaluations and machine learning will facilitate a rational design strategy for selecting and optimizing carboranyl ionic liquids. The results of these studies will culminate in life cycle analysis (LCA) and a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to determine the appropriateness of these developed technologies for further development and or implementation.

This project will develop a mining engineering education curriculum at Tennessee State University (TSU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), to address the pressing need for a skilled and diverse workforce capable of driving critical mineral production in the mining industry. Critical minerals are building blocks for U.S. economic and national security. Currently, most critical minerals used in the U.S. are imported from other nations. Advancing toward a clean energy and industrial future enhances the need for these valuable resources. The energy mining industry in the U.S. is dependent upon a qualified workforce trained at the university level in mining engineering programs. The mining and geoscience sectors have faced challenges related to workforce and talent shortages, which is a problem exacerbated by the rising demand for critical minerals. To address this issue, the project aims to develop specialized curricula at colleges and universities, with an initial focus on minority-serving institutions, where relatively few established programs currently exist. This initiative seeks to equip a diverse student body with the necessary skills and knowledge to fill the talent gap in these critical industries.

The Ohio State University (OSU) is further progressing their Gen III membrane technology through engineering-scale testing with natural gas flue gas. The objectives of this project are to (1) repurpose and modify an existing engineering-scale skid for a 5-tonne-per-day engineering-scale carbon capture system using OSU’s transformational membrane in commercial-size, spiral-wound membrane modules; (2) conduct field-testing on natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) flue gas and demonstrate a continuous, steady-state operation for a minimum of two months; and (3) gather necessary data for further process scale-up. The goal is to achieve the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) transformational carbon capture performance target of 95% carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture with greater than or equal to 95% CO₂ purity from NGCC power plant flue gas and demonstrate significant progress toward a 30% reduction in the cost of carbon capture versus the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) baseline approach.

In this project, GE Vernova will develop a direct air capture (DAC) hub concept in the greater Houston, Texas, area. The proposed DAC hub will utilize nuclear energy as a power source and will be designed to capture and store 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year (MTPY). Tasks that will be performed for project completion include conducting a pre-feasibility study for a DAC hub in the Houston area; selection of anchor DAC and CO2 conversion technologies; performing a preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study on the selected DAC technology; performing a balance of plant (BOP) conceptual design for a 1-MTPY hub; developing financial and business plans to determine conditions for a financially viable DAC Hub; and performing a life cycle analysis (LCA). Additionally, a Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed, which will consider U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of community engagement; diversity equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and Justice40.

The Ohio State University (OSU) is further progressing their third-generation (Gen III) membrane technology through engineering-scale testing with cement flue gas. In previous testing with simulated cement kiln flue gas, OSU’s Gen III membrane exhibited high carbon dioxide (CO₂) permeance and CO₂/nitrogen (N₂) selectivity. The superior performance is based on a facilitated transport mechanism, in which a reversible CO₂ reaction with the fixed-site and mobile carriers in the membrane enhances the CO₂/N₂ separation. The objectives of this project are to (1) design and build a 3-tonne-per-day engineering-scale carbon capture system using OSU’s transformational membrane in commercial-size, spiral-wound membrane modules; (2) conduct field-testing on real cement flue gas at Holcim US’ Holly Hill plant and demonstrate a continuous, steady-state operation for a minimum of two months; and (3) gather necessary data for further process scale-up. The overall goal is to achieve the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) transformational carbon capture performance target of 95% CO₂ capture with greater than or equal to 95% CO₂ purity from industrial process streams and demonstrate the economic viability of the proposed technology.

The project will examine ways in which the life of decommissioned offshore assets can be extended by repurposing them for clean energy projects, specifically, wind power and hydrogen generation. Other repurposing uses could include carbon capture and sequestration. The study will generate a comprehensive framework of technical, social, and regulatory aspects and available resources that will encourage and incentivize communities, investors, and the industry to move forward with the Repurposing of Offshore Infrastructure for Clean Energy (ROICE) projects.

The long-term objective of the Pelican Gulf Coast Carbon Removal Project (Pelican) is to successfully design, engineer, construct and safely operate the commercially viable Pelican Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub, including capture, treatment and compression of 1 million tonnes per annum (MTA) of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which will be transported through pipelines to a permanent storage site and end users. A successful project outcome will lay the groundwork for improved air quality in the region; the creation of good, high-wage, family-sustaining jobs in this economically distressed region; and the maturation of a technology that can support continued decarbonization of manufactured end products, sustaining a critical part of the regional economy. For Phase 0a, Louisiana State University and project partners will develop and evaluate multiple DAC technologies to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, leveraging existing regional infrastructure in one of the highest-emitting areas in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. For Phase 0b, the project team will complete a pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study for the integrated DAC system, including DAC technology(ies), CO₂ transport and balance of plant (BOP) for the initial DAC hub capacity of at least 50 kilotonnes per annum (KTA) of CO₂, as well as complete a DAC hub BOP conceptual design for the final DAC hub capacity of at least 1 MTA of CO₂. Phase 0b will also include completion of an Environmental Health and Safety Analysis (EH&S) risk analysis. Both phases will include engagement with local community leaders and organizations and advancement of the Community Benefits Plan (CBP), permitting activities and life cycle analysis (LCA) efforts.

The overall objectives of the project are to utilize humanities and social science approaches to identify how societal considerations intersect with different phases in the life cycles of carbon capture and conversion technologies. The Humanities-Drive STEM (HDSTEM) approach encompasses a socio-economic analysis of carbon management technologies, computational decarbonization research performed by underrepresented minorities, new HDSTEM courses/outreach efforts, and education of students (in both humanities and engineering) on novel carbon management technologies.

The overall objective of this project is to incubate next-generation scientists and engineers by training and promoting the research capacity of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and advancing in-situ, carbon-zero hydrogen generation from shale gas reservoirs. The first specific objective is to equip students from MSIs with cutting-edge, highly translatable skillsets to fill the critical workforce gaps in the transition from fossil fuels to clean hydrogen energy. This will be achieved by six significantly involved, on-site visiting scholars from two Hispanic-serving institutions (Texas Tech University; Texas A&M University) and one historically Black university (Howard University), with the assistance of one majority-serving institution (University at Buffalo). The second specific objective is to promote the technology readiness level (TRL) of a carbon-zero technology (i.e., in-situ electromagnetic (EM)-assisted catalytic heating for hydrogen production directly from shale gas reservoirs) from a TRL of 3-4 to 5. This will be achieved by the strongly complementary expertise and skillsets of four PIs and Co-PIs on shale reservoirs, EM irradiation, reactions, and hydrogen membrane separations, as well as the deep involvement of the six visiting scholars for a total of 18 months over three years.

ASRC Consulting & Environmental Services LLC (ACES) aims to complete a feasibility study of existing direct air capture (DAC) technologies and their applicability in Alaska. Specifically, ACES will assess three regions in Alaska (North Slope, Interior and Cook Inlet) for DAC hub suitability, eventually selecting a specific region based on availability of power, land and water; storage opportunities; and potential beneficial (non-storage) use of carbon dioxide (CO₂). ACES will also assess the existing DAC technologies (with a Technology Readiness Level [TRL] of 4 or greater), their ability to scale up to 50 kiloton annually, and any technical challenges in their applicability in Alaska, eventually selecting an anchoring technology for a DAC hub in the state. Additionally, a Community Benefits Plan (CBP) will be developed to ensure that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) federal investments advance the goals of community engagement; diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and the Justice40 initiative.

The State of Utah's Emery and Carbon counties, known as Utah’s Coal Country, represent a region whose economy has relied almost exclusively on coal mining and coal-fired power plants for decades. Two coal power plants in Emery County are currently planned to be retired in 2031 and 2032. Those plant closures threaten hundreds of direct power plant jobs, hundreds more coal mining jobs, and even more indirect jobs that are closely tied to the region’s coal industry. The overall objective of the proposed work is to explore technical and economic pathways for replacing coal power plants and coal mines in Utah’s Coal Country with new energy investments in Emery County. Two different pathways will be considered. Pathway #1 entails replacing the coal power plants with advanced nuclear plants and thermal energy storage technology and replacing the coal mines with critical minerals extraction. Pathway #2 would replace both the coal power plants and coal mines with two parallel investments: utility-scale solar installations and clean energy manufacturing. This project outlines multiple asset and workforce transition options for both the power plants and the mines. The study will include a technical analysis to evaluate the performance of these new assets as well as in-depth economic modeling to analyze the overall impact that these investments would have on the community.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will execute and complete a feasibility study for a regional direct air capture (DAC) hub that encompasses the Bay County region in the state of Florida. The DAC technologies that will be investigated during this study are from Heirloom and GE Vernova. The storage of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) for this hub will be based on the thick, permeable saline aquifers (Tuscaloosa Group [1,500–2,149 meters deep]) — a geological area where a significant numbers of geological storage studies have been conducted. The hub is designed to assure a capacity to capture, store and utilize at least 1,000,000 metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere annually, starting from an initial capacity of at least 50,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually. A Community Benefits Plan will be developed for engaging communities and labor; investing in America’s workers through quality jobs; advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility through recruitment and training; and implementing Justice40, which directs 40% of the overall benefits to flow to disadvantaged communities.

This project advances the nation’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 by evaluating the feasibility of a regional direct air capture (DAC) hub for storage in the Illinois Basin. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will lead the effort to promote promising technologies that can capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere and store it in the Illinois Basin stretching under Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Deep beneath huge portions of those states lies thick sandstone layers ideal for trapping greenhouse gases, such as CO₂, for centuries.

The Illinois Basin Regional DAC Hub is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop cooperative relationships between DAC technology providers, green energy providers, CO₂ transportation networks, and companies seeking to pump CO₂ underground or use it in industrial processes. This phase of the project will determine the hub operations structure, as well as the feasibility of the cooperative hub economically removing at least 50,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year. The field of DAC is in its infancy and will require massive commitment/attention to dispose of billions of tons of atmospheric carbon.

UIUC has been a major participant in DOE’s effort to advance technologies to reduce point-source carbon pollution, helping to enable a carbon-free power sector and industries. This DAC effort contributes to the larger net-zero goal by evaluating the opportunities and economies of carbon reduction directly from the air throughout its complete supply chain.

The hub’s location allows access to (1) several Class VI CO₂ injection wells in development around the Illinois Basin, (2) a growing market for utilization of CO₂ across several large urban centers, (3) connectivity through developing transport infrastructure, (4) abundant sources of clean energy, (5) supporting industries that can provide construction materials, and (6) a large pool of local workforces that can be developed to the skills needed for project implementation and future expansion.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will complete a feasibility study for a regional direct air capture (DAC) hub that encompasses the Pueblo region in Colorado. The DAC hub is designed to assure a capacity to capture, store and utilize at least 1,000,000 metric tons (tonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere annually, with an initial capacity of at least 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. Project partners for this Phase 0a/0b DAC hub effort include DAC technology providers Sustaera and GE Vernova; engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) support from Ecotek; Carbon America, who is involved with a Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) study for geologic storage within the planned hub location; renewable energy developer NextEra Energy; and Visage Energy, who is providing community benefits support. The project will be split into two phases: Phase 0a for pre-feasibility and Phase 0b for feasibility. As part of the final feasibility study, the project scope includes a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP); a description of the chosen DAC hub concept; the DAC technologies to be implemented; a business plan; a financial plan; a Community Benefits Plan (CBP); DAC hub data tables; a pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED) study of the integrated DAC system; a conceptual design of the balance of plant (BOP); a life cycle analysis (LCA); the status of the storage field development plan; an environmental health and safety (EH&S) risk analysis; safety, security and regulatory requirements; and an integrated project schedule (IPS).

The objective of this project is to establish a carbon management (CM) hub focused on developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure at a geological storage complex in the north-central Anadarko Basin (Canadian Counties) by (1) identifying key technical knowledge gaps, (2) facilitating data acquisition, sharing, and analysis to close the gaps, (3) evaluating regional infrastructure, and promoting (4) technology transfer, and (5) public engagement and support. The project is built on intellectual and social products of the previously funded Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB) and channels public engagement through ongoing educational efforts such as the Professional Master of Science Program at Oklahoma State University (OSU), which, in association with industry and professional society partners, aspires to create a “carbon-ready” workforce.

Winner Water Services, along with Hatch, Southern Company Services, Eco Material Technologies, and Physical Sciences, will perform a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study based on an Association for Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) Class 3 cost strategy of a 1–3 metric ton per day rare earth oxide (MREO) plant capable of extraction, separation, and refining of high purity or binary rare earth metals and critical minerals from coal ash. The study will establish and define technical requirements focused on project scope, schedule, and costs, to reduce the risk of construction and operation of the potential future facilities. The scope will focus on four major areas: (1) Project Management and Planning, (2) Site Selection, Feedstock Characterization, and De-risking, (3) Front End Engineering and Design Study, and (4) Community Benefits and Engagement.

CarbonSAFE Eos is devoted to carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal and promoting clean energy deployment in Colorado. The objective of this project is to progress development of a large storage site capable of holding at least 50 million tonnes of CO₂ over 30 years, and to incorporate principles of consent-based siting and two-way engagement for development planning. The project is acquiring 3D seismic data and drilling stratigraphic test wells in two locations to establish storage and prove up the sequestration fairway. These technical results will be overlain by insight from landowner and community engagement to allow for incorporation of landowner preferences to plan for operations most amenable to stakeholders. The project includes seismic data collection across both locations and the first test well at Chico Basin Ranch, as well as efforts to build strong developer-community relationships, increasing understanding of the social and economic development needs of the Pueblo region, and how carbon management can support further economic opportunities. The project's two test wells at Chico Basin Ranch and Brett Gray Ranch, and considerable work with specific impacted stakeholders will allow the project team to finalize the development plan, while establishing a robust framework for community benefits and engagement.

The University of Utah, in collaboration with the University of Oklahoma, will perform a conceptual design study and laboratory validation of an oxygen-based chemical looping approach to ethylene production. The project team plans to design, analyze and validate a novel bifunctional concept that utilizes the perovskite-based oxide (Na-doped LaMnO3-delta) as an oxygen carrier, which can be employed to produce chemicals and mitigate carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in both the reduction and oxidation steps. The concept design and experimental validation work will advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from three to four.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in partnership with Global Algae Innovations (GAI), will enhance the design of an existing approximately 180 m² engineering-scale algae cultivation system — integrated with power plant and wastewater treatment operations at City Water Light and Power (CWLP) — to produce algae biomass that can reduce enteric methane emissions when used as a high-protein feed supplement for cattle. In budget period 1, the team will lower operation expenses of the cultivation system and select ideal algae strains for methane reduction based on nutritional/in vitro assessment of algae biomass. In budget period 2, the team will increase process productivity using cool season crop rotation and demonstrate the methane reduction potential of the algae biomass through in vivo digestion studies in cattle, resulting in a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions and a 20% reduction in the minimum required selling price of the feed product relative to current baseline alternatives. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) modeling will confirm full-scale revenues can exceed production costs, and that the cattle feed market can support capture of an estimated 100 million tons of CO₂ annually.

The Atlantic Coast CO₂ Emissions Storage Sink: Project ACCESS CarbonSAFE Phase II Project seeks to build on regional data sets that demonstrate that the subsurface within Miami‐Dade County, FL has the potential to store commercial volumes of CO₂ safely, permanently, and economically. The primary target reservoirs for the CO₂ storage complex are the deep Cedar Keys/Lawson and Dollar Bay carbonates located within the South Florida Basin, central Miami‐Dade County. These deep saline reservoirs are beneath a confining system encompassing at least 1,500 ft of anhydrite and other low-permeability sediments. Project ACCESS will acquire and process approximately 12 line-miles of 2D seismic data to ensure geologic rigor, as well as a shallow resistivity survey (karst identification), and then drill a deep stratigraphic test well to confirm the geological properties of the confining system and saline reservoirs within the storage complex. The geological data will be incorporated into numerical models to establish the areal extent of the CO₂ injection and help design the storage site and its monitoring system. The goal is to establish the foundation for a commercial scale geologic storage complex for CO₂ captured from Titan’s Pennsuco Cement Plant and surrounding industrial sources of CO₂ located in Miami‐Dade County, Florida.

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is developing an innovative in-field characterization system for real-time detection of rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals (CMs) from domestic unconventional sources, such as acid mine drainage (AMD) and solid ash. This system will utilize an electrochemical sensor array with chemically functionalized interdigitated electrodes and deep ultraviolet (DUV) Raman spectroscopy to analyze the elemental composition and chemical binding states of REEs and CMs. Leveraging Argonne's advanced equipment and expertise in electrochemistry-based sensing and DUV Raman spectroscopy, the portable system will provide precise, near-real-time characterization. This will aid in assessing the value and potential recovery of these resources, thereby supporting sustainable resource exploration and utilization.

The overarching goals of the proposed effort are to develop and demonstrate the digital twin system of a 300 kWth high-pressure municipal solid waste (MSW)-biomass fluidized bed co-gasifier and develop a talent pipeline for digital systems in energy engineering. The proposed effort will experimentally validate the fidelity of the gasifier digital twin system for optimum hydrogen yield and reduced emissions for various feedstocks and operating conditions. A major goal will be training the students of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and Angelo State University (ASU) on core digital skills such as model-based engineering, design and user experience, DevSecOps development framework, cloud-based (edge) development, heterogeneous computing, augmented reality, etc. with an overarching cybersecurity mindset.

This project aims to develop a visiting scholar program that includes two host institutions and four partner minority-serving institutions (MSIs). The program will educate and train 4 to 6 minority students annually with skills in advanced sorption materials for Direct Air Capture (DAC). Specifically, a novel enzyme-catalyzed hollow fiber sorbent (ECHFS) with fast CO₂ adsorption kinetics will be developed by two steps: (I) fabrication of hydrophilic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) grafted L-lysine (PVDF-g-Lys) porous hollow fibers with rich amine functional groups; and (2) immobilization of a high-temperature resistant carbonate anhydrase (CA) mimic, Zinc (II)-Cyclen, to the PVDF-g-Lys hollow fiber through vacuum filtration. The integration of rich amine groups and immobilized CA mimic as a catalyst on the easy-to-scalable PVDF hollow fibers can synergistically promote the DAC performance in terms of high CO₂ adsorption capacity, fast CO₂ adsorption rate, and low heat of adsorption at dilute CO₂ condition.

This project focuses on completion of a front-end engineering design (FEED) study based on an Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) Class 3 cost estimate defining the equipment, cost, and parameters for a large-scale pilot facility for domestic production of rare earth elements (REE). The Illinois Rare Earth Novel Extract & Supply (IRENES) project seeks to perform the FEED study needed to establish a fully integrated, vertical supply chain for several critical minerals (CM), entirely located within Illinois. The objective is to bring Lithium, Scandium, Neodymium, and Praseodymium metals; as well as high-purity Dysprosium and other REE oxides and Nickel, Zinc, Cobalt, Manganese, and potentially HP Aluminum to market. The proposed engineering study envisions two facilities. 1) An extraction, concentration, and production facility to be located in Marissa, IL near the Prairie State Energy Campus, a combination coal mine and coal-fired power plant complex. 2) A purification and refining facility would be established in Urbana, IL to produce refined, individual REE oxides and metals from the mixed rare earth oxides (MREO). The project envisions up to 50 tons per year of MREO production, plus purified individual REE, scandium, and various CM. The completed FEED will include the design and cost estimates for facilities that demonstrate the concentration and extraction of MREO from coal mine refuse and effluents and subsequently separation and refinement into rare earth metals (REM). The outcome of the project will provide engineering plans for the facilities, which will include processes, design, performance, cost, gaps, life cycle analyses, and address environmental and social concerns.

The Southwest Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Training and Research Partnership (CCUS-STRP) aims to develop and sustain a university training and research consortium for carbon capture, utilization, and storage and pipeline technologies. The consortium will introduce underrepresented students from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to the clean energy technology market. In particular, students will be trained to perform research related to underground geological storage of CO₂. To this end the project team has several objectives:

1. Build new partnerships between the DOE’s supported research facilities and MSIs in STEM disciplines; recruit, engage, and train students from underrepresented groups for careers in decarbonization and net-zero GHG emission technology.
2. Determine scaling criteria for CO₂ injection to mitigate seismicity by integrating cutting-edge visually monitored true-triaxial laboratory experiments, advanced poromechanical numerical modeling, and supporting geomechanical theory.
3. Advance the understanding of CO₂‐induced chemo‐mechanical alteration in reservoir rock by using a static batch reactor, flow-through experiments, and mechanical testing.
4. Address the pressing gap in planning and designing long-term and safe CO₂ storage operations, including CO₂ trapping mechanisms, risk assessment, and CO₂ transportation.

Helios-NRG LLC has partnered with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the Bozeman Fish Technology Center (BFTC) to develop an efficient process to transform anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from brewery off-gas into algae biomass and subsequently validate the biomass use in animal feeds. The process will be comprised of three key technologies: algae with high productivity and robust performance in the brewery off-gas environment, an energy-efficient algae dewatering system, and production of animal feed. The recipient will formulate and develop algae-blended fish and chicken feeds and qualify these feeds through field trials. The project aims to validate the practical use and benefits of the algae-based feed products. A preliminary assessment of the technical and economic viability of the algae-based carbon capture and conversion technology to produce value-added products will be conducted through techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA).

The project aims to accelerate the development of gas switching technologies by developing a business case for further technology advancement. In Phase 1, University of Alabama will perform limited experimental work for kinetics measurement ahead of a large-scale industrial gas switching reformer (GSR) conceptual design in order to build a business case for GSR technologies for hydrogen production with integrated carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture as an alternative to chemical looping applications. The business case will have the following components: preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA), preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA), a technology maturation plan (TMP), environmental health and safety (EH&S) analysis, technology gap analysis, and research and development (R&D) Community Benefits Plan (CBP).

Ohio State University, in partnership with Babcock and Wilcox and Cleveland Cliffs, aims to decarbonize iron production in a direct reduction of iron (DRI) plant by integrating the biomass chemical looping (BCL) technology for syngas generation from carbon-neutral biomass feedstocks with in situ carbon capture. The overall project objective of Phase 1 is to undertake detailed conceptual design studies involving comprehensive process simulations, a preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA), and a preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA) of the integrated BCL-DRI process. Bench-scale experiments will be conducted to generate scale-up data for the BCL-DRI plant. A thorough comparison of iron production using the BCL-DRI technology will be made against the existing MIDREX® process to assess both the cost-benefit and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions reduction potential offered by the process, thus allowing the stakeholders to make an informed decision regarding the carbon intensity of the product and market potential of the technology. The BCL-DRI process is currently a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3; Phase 1 studies will establish the feasibility of the technology for a subpilot demonstration during Phase 2, which is expected to increase the TRL to 4.

The overall objective of this project is to validate the environmental and economic attractiveness of North Carolina State University’s chemical looping–oxidative dehydrogenation (CL-ODH) technology via detailed techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA). The CL-ODH process has the potential for significant reductions in energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the production of ethylene compared to the state-of-the-art ethane cracking process. The TEA and LCA work will primarily be built upon extensive experimental data obtained from a robust redox catalyst (1,400+ cycles in a fluidized bed) and a circulating fluidized bed design based on previous cold model studies. During Phase I, the project team will validate the performance of a new generation of redox catalyst, which will further improve the product selectivity and determine the catalyst’s impact on the process economics and emissions. The target is to achieve greater than 99.5% CO₂ emissions reduction when compared to state-of-the-art thermal cracking technology while reducing the cost of ethylene by greater than 23%. During the Phase I work, the team will also develop a detailed plan for Phase II, which will involve long-term experimental validation of the CL-ODH technology to ready it for pilot-scale demonstration.

GTI Energy will partner with U.S. Steel Corporation to advance the ROTA-CAP™ carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system to pilot scale (3 tonnes of CO₂ captured/day). The project objectives are to design, build and operate an engineering-scale plant at U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson industrial iron and steel production facility in Braddock, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The project will be supported by Holcim US Inc., Enbridge Gas Inc., and Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA), with a goal to demonstrate that the capture system captures 95% of the CO₂ from the industrial gas slipstream and produces a 95% pure CO₂ stream. GTI Energy has completed more than 1,600 hours of testing with their skid-scale (1-tonne CO₂/day) ROTA-CAP system at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), with feed gas varying from 4% to 22% CO₂, exhibiting up to 95% capture efficiency.

The project will be executed in three phases: (1) design and size the major equipment for the process, as well as finalize host-site agreements and any required environmental or operational permits; (2) procure all equipment and construct and commission the engineering-scale system; and (3) operate the engineering-scale plant for at least two continuous months, followed by decommissioning and restoration of the host site. The project will continually update techno-economic and environmental, safety and health analyses in parallel with the work.

This project aims to comprehensively characterize produced water from the Permian and San Juan Basins in New Mexico and develop a scalable and highly efficient membrane distillation-crystallization and adsorption (MDCrA) process for simultaneous water and critical elements recovery from produced water. The MDCrA process will be integrated based on a novel omniphobic polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membrane distillation and crystallization process. The critical minerals, especially lithium, will be enriched to at least 200 mg/L and recovered using an aluminum-based layered double hydroxide (LDH, e.g., Li/Al LDH) from the concentrated produced water by continuously extracting high-purity water (TDS<50 mg/L). The treated high-purity water with >90% water recovery yield can be used as a sustainable resource for beneficial reuse, such as green hydrogen production. Both bench and pilot scale MDCrA units (1,000 gallons per day) will be developed and validated for produced water treatment.

In Phase 1 of this project, Electricore Inc. will partner with Carmeuse Lime Inc. and FLSmidth Inc. to perform a conceptual design of an oxyfuel combustion system for the retrofitting of existing rotary lime kilns that will enhance energy efficiency and reduce the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of lime production. This conceptual design and feasibility study involves evaluating the mathematical model of a rotary lime kiln with oxyfuel combustion, based on a 450-ton-per-day kiln design and associated operating conditions; performing simulations to evaluate the impact of oxyfuel combustion on the product quality, energy consumption, stack gas composition and CO₂ emissions of the kiln; identifying the technical challenges and potential solutions for retrofitting oxyfuel combustion to the kiln, such as oxygen supply, fuel injection, flame stability, refractory materials, flue gas recirculation and process control; and estimating the economic feasibility and environmental benefits of implementing oxyfuel combustion to the kiln, considering the capital and operating costs, fuel savings and CO₂ capture potential.

Catalytic and Redox Solutions, in partnership with North Carolina State University and West Virginia University, is targeting the decarbonization of the aromatic chemical production industry (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylene). The project team will continue developing the oxidative coupling-dehydroaromatization (OC-DHA) approach to convert methane into aromatics. The four main project objectives are to: (i) create refined process models of the system based upon preliminary data; (ii) develop a plant design with unit sizing to act as a basis for costing and techno-economic analysis (TEA) indicating a greater than or equal to 15% reduction in the cost of aromatics compared to a current state-of-the-art, retrofit, carbon capture approach; (iii) use mass and energy balances to develop a preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA) of the system, as well as a compelling baseline case to validate the potential for 95% reduction in net carbon emissions relative to an unmitigated industrial process that generates the same quantity of the product; and (iv) develop a technology gap analysis (TGA) and related Phase 2 scope of work to address these gaps.

The staged, pressurized oxy-combustion (SPOC) technology, being developed at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), is an ideal technology for decarbonizing steam processes in general, and the paper industry specifically. WUSTL, with partners NexantECA and Electric Power Research Institute, is advancing the SPOC technology for application to cogeneration (steam and power) with coal or biomass as fuels, with the goal of transforming the recycled paper industry from a highly carbon-intensive process to a carbon-neutral (coal-fired) or carbon-negative (biomass-fired) process, based on life cycle analysis (LCA). The process offers: (1) high-efficiency through staging and latent heat recovery; (2) near-zero emissions through 95% or higher carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture efficiency; (3) ability to fire with biomass, as well as natural gas or coal; (4) small modular boilers and pollutant removal units that can be fabricated in shop and assembled on site, further reducing plant capital costs; and (5) integration with energy storage via liquid oxygen storage and use of curtailed electricity from wind and solar.

The ultimate outcome of this project will be an economically optimized conceptual design for a commercial-scale, pressurized oxy-combustion biomass-fired plant, with specific emphasis on the paper industry. The project team will perform a conceptual design of a recycled paper plant employing the SPOC technology and a preliminary techno-economic analysis and LCA. A test campaign will be executed to assess the performance and operational stability of the SPOC system with biomass feed while operating up to 100 kilowatt thermal (kWth).

This project will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the technical, social and governance feasibility of establishing a Community Alliance for Direct Air Capture (CALDAC) in California.

This innovative effort invites the local community to be the center of direct air capture (DAC) hub development. The recipient will work with community partners to conduct outreach, engagement and education on DAC and establish a compensated Community Oversight Council. The feasibility assessment will include two intersecting and interconnected elements:

• Development of the DAC hub structure and assessment of the technical feasibility of the DAC hub, including technology partners, location, business model, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage/utilization/conversion option(s).
• Assessment of the social and governance feasibility of an innovative, community-led ownership model and community benefits plan (CBP) that engages local stakeholders as core partners.

Additionally, a CBP will be developed, which will task the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure that federal investments advance the goals of community engagement; diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and the Justice40 initiative.

The Sweetwater Carbon Storage Hub project is meeting CarbonSAFE Phase III project objectives through the completion of detailed carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage facility characterization and all necessary permitting for a commercial-scale, secure, geological CO₂ storage complex in the Greater Green River Basin of southwestern Wyoming. The scope of work includes a CO₂ Sources Feasibility Study; a Pipeline Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study; a Storage Field Development Plan; and a risk assessment and mitigation plan, which will continue to be actively updated throughout the project life cycle. The project is investigating subsurface conditions and surface environment of the CO₂ storage complex. The eventual integrated commercial-scale CO₂ capture, transport, and storage hub will capture and store CO₂ from the largest proposed direct air capture (DAC) facility in the Rocky Mountains and one of the nation’s largest trona (soda ash) mines. In the project’s ideal and fully realized state the hub facility will accept CO₂ from more sources and expand the storage field to include more injection wells. This will yield economies of scale and reduce risk by following a proven hub model.

Chevron New Energies, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (CNE), is collaborating with 280 Earth; Avnos; Sustaera; Black & Veatch; University of California, Davis; California State University, Bakersfield; and Electricore to explore the feasibility of a potential direct air capture (DAC) hub initially focused on Kern County, California and nearby counties. The study will build upon CNE’s existing lower-carbon technology pilots and other potential new energies projects in California. The pre-feasibility work (phase 0a) will select anchoring DAC technology(ies); confirm the initial capacity of the hub (min. 50,000 tonnes annually [50 KTA] CO₂); review trade-off considerations for siting, transport and energy; develop a conceptual design; and perform a preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA) for the initial hub capacity to be evaluated in the preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) study. Additionally, the team will provide an initial design for the DAC hub balance of plant (BOP) for the final hub capacity (min. 1 million ton annually [MTA] CO₂) and develop the Community Benefits Plan Development Proposal (CBPDP). The feasibility work (phase 0b) will develop a pre-FEED study package for the initial DAC hub capacity (min. 50 KTA CO₂) with an Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) Class 4 estimate and a DAC hub BOP conceptual design for the final hub capacity (min. 1 MTA CO₂), along with the development of the associated integrated project schedules. In support of the commercial and technical evaluation of the hub, the team will develop a Business Plan; Technology Maturation Plan; Financial Plan; Community Benefits Plan; Environmental Health and Safety Risk Analysis; Safety, Security, and Regulatory Requirements review inclusive of a permitting workflow overview; and a preliminary LCA for the final hub capacity.

The project's primary objective is to demonstrate the potential for repurposing existing infrastructure to provide profitable zero-emission transportation fueled by low-carbon intensity hydrogen (LCIH) with positive workforce development and community impacts in the Greater Houston Area (GHA). To this end, the project team will develop a geographic information system (GIS) to facilitate optimization of H₂ fuel supply and demand options and apply it to data gathered for a GHA H₂ transportation pilot demonstration. Additionally, the project team will establish a workforce training network offering skills that support LCIH fuel supply and use and develop stakeholder support for a demonstration in the GHA.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will perform temporally and spatially resolved measurements of carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations inside operating solid sorbent CO₂ capture devices with spatially resolved capillary inlet mass spectrometry (SpaciMS) to elucidate sorption and desorption processes and generate datasets for model calibration and validation. Solid sorbent materials for both direct air capture (DAC) and point-source CO₂ capture applications are currently being developed, evaluated, and scaled up for demonstration and deployment. In certain applications, solid CO₂ sorbents are coated onto ceramic flow-through monoliths or in fiber beds. SpaciMS provides a powerful tool to measure CO₂ concentration profiles inside such devices under actual operating conditions. These measurements will yield valuable insights into the CO₂ capture and release processes as a function of operating conditions, such as temperature, pressure, flow rate and gas composition. Furthermore, they will provide critical datasets for use in calibration and validation of capture device models, which will be needed to design scaled-up systems. Finally, SpaciMS will reveal how common pollutants found in ambient air (for DAC) or flue gas (for point-source capture) might impact device performance as they block CO₂ storage sites or key reaction pathways.

Reaction Engineering International (REI) will deliver a novel, machine learning (ML)-based tool that can predict emissions for solvent-based carbon capture systems. The software will take advantage of significant investments by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in carbon dioxide (CO₂) control system modeling and economic analysis, while allowing nonexpert users to evaluate various decarbonization scenarios. The proposed model framework will naturally integrate with ongoing development efforts for DOE’s Institute for Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES) software. The proposed effort will focus on the development and validation of an ML model for predicting emissions from plants with CO₂ capture technology based on amine-based solvents. The specific technical objectives for the Phase I research and development include: (1) developing and validating an ML model for predicting emissions using historic test campaign data, including operating parameters; (2) demonstrating the ability of the ML model to operate in a real-time environment within a plant’s control system; (3) demonstrating the ML model as part of an advanced, hybrid power systems decision-making framework that REI is currently developing.

This Phase I SBIR project targets downhole elemental identification and characterization by developing a Deuterium-Deuterium (DD) neutron generator, wireline, prompt-gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) tool to reduce the cost and time associated with exploration activities through the reuse of existing wells or other boreholes. Starfire Industries, working with its partners Mount Sopris Instruments and Advanced Logic Technologies, will develop a PGNAA version suitable for critical minerals identification, mine reservoir characterization, and other applications. The commercial objective of this project is an instrument tool that can be used for real-time in-situ characterization and quantification of critical minerals and materials (CMM) at depth to readily quantify concentrations and/or mode of occurrence desired for down-hole settings (e.g. boreholes or existing wells) by performing full-spectra gamma-spectral measurement with DD.

The project aims to provide a composite anode active material that has a reversible specific capacity exceeding that of battery-grade natural graphite. The initial laboratory work that has been done with these materials will be expanded with the goal of demonstrating a composite anode active material that contains more than 50% lignite in an industrially relevant capacity and form factor. Various lignite coals or lignite coal wastes will be sourced and tested along with variations of the baseline process to arrive at the best-performing formulation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique, half- and full-coin cells will be fabricated using composite anodes, and these will be subjected to in-house and independent testing. Larger-format cells with capacities above 250 mAh will then be produced for demonstration and testing.

CYG Nittany LLC will demonstrate the commercial and carbon dioxide (CO₂) mitigation potential of a pilot-tested CO₂ utilization technology developed over the past decade with significant support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The CO₂ emitted from an industrial lime production plant will be used as a feedstock to produce ultra-low-carbon, low-cost concrete products at commercial scale. The project is broken into three phases (three Budget Periods): (1) Design, (2) Construction and Commissioning, and (3) Operations. The project will target a reduction in raw materials embodied carbon by 60% (CO₂ uptake greater than 1.75 mass percent of concrete utilized from the lime plant’s flue gas), and concrete production capacity of 200 tonnes per day to achieve target unit economics.

Global Algae Innovations Inc. will develop and demonstrate an algal conversion process that will transform carbon dioxide (CO₂) from flue gas to a polymer feedstock. The project will develop, test, optimize and quantify process parameters for the integrated process to produce algal-based polyurethane consumer products. Global Algae will perform two 30-day outdoor growth campaigns of the integrated process and characterize the polyurethane product; quantify the performance, usability and benefits of the product; and evaluate co-products. The project will also quantify the economic, environmental and community benefits of the process for an algal-based polyurethane product through use of the field test results in a techno-economic analysis (TEA), life cycle analysis (LCA), and environmental justice questionnaire.

The objective of the Bluebonnet Sequestration Project is to advance the commerciality of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Texas while supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); disadvantaged communities; and environmental justice communities. The project plans to complete detailed site characterization, including a water analysis well and a 3D seismic survey. Additionally, the Bluebonnet Sequestration Project is conducting a pipeline front-end engineering design (FEED) study, performing risk assessment of the storage complex, preparing storage field development plans, and advancing community outreach and engagement.

The goals of this project are to advance the characterization of coal combustion residual (CCR) effluents and to illustrate the use of such characterization to determine environmental impact and resource recovery. Characterization will be illustrated by modeling the environmental impact of characterized CCR effluents on ground and surface water and examining design options for effluent treatment and resource recovery. The goal of advancing the characterization of CCR effluents will be achieved in four ways:

• The development of a technique for the analysis of the major cations, anions, trace metals, and rare earth elements (REEs) in a single assay (one-shot) to be utilized for the characterization of CCR effluents.
• The development of a fluorimetry technique for REEs prospecting in CCR effluents.
• The development of a fluorescence sensor array for detecting and discriminating toxic metals in CCR effluents.
• The evaluation of total X-ray fluorescence for multi-element detection in CCR effluents.

Arizona State University is developing an algae-to-asphalt process that integrates two greenhouse gas (GHG)-reducing technologies. The first uses polyextremophilic algae to capture anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) while treating wastewater from anaerobic sludge digestion (centrate) to significantly lower net GHG emissions at municipal water treatment facilities. Scalable revolving algal biofilm (RAB) reactors will be used to minimize hydraulic residence times and harvesting costs. The algal biomass will be processed via hydrothermal liquefaction (350°C, 2,500 psi) to produce a bio-asphalt binder to supplement or replace petroleum-based asphalts. The produced materials will be tested to quantify reductions in net GHG emissions relative to traditional asphalt. The project thus combines biological uptake of CO₂ with carbon storage in durable asphalt to lower GHG emissions.

An Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI application for the commercial Carbon TerraVault III (CTV III) Storage Project is currently in process with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This CarbonSAFE project will support the commercial-scale CTV III Storage Project by performing a comprehensive geologic characterization, develop a community benefits approach that addresses community needs and ensures transparency, and perform risk assessments, feasibility studies and technoeconomic studies of the project’s technical and non-technical challenges. A stratigraphic well will be drilled, and a comprehensive well logging campaign will be conducted. Field and laboratory studies will include coring, hydrologic testing, pressure profiling, and a variety of analyses of the subsurface media. The acquired data will be used to generate and validate subsurface models, develop reliable injection simulations, generate preliminary risk assessments, risk mitigation strategies, and long-term monitoring plans, and satisfy pre-operational testing requirements for the UIC Class VI permit application. An injection scenario analyses will be conducted to validate the viability of safely storing a minimum of 71 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over a 30-year period and determine the footprint of the predicted pressure front.

The Permian Regional Carbon Sequestration Hub Project is a feasibility study for the development of a carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage hub to serve the Southern Delaware Basin in Ward, Winkler, Reeves, and Loving Counties, Texas. The study is utilizing existing data to characterize targeted Ordovician-Devonian geologic formations for CO₂ storage that have an estimated storage resource of 75,000,000 metric tons of CO₂. The project is developing a detailed characterization of the targeted geologic storage complex, conducting a preliminary risk assessment including CO₂ source assessment, preparing and inventorying the relevant data that will support the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI-Wells used for Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide, Authorization to Construct Permit application (UIC Class VI Permit Application), developing an integrated assessment of project feasibility, and pursuing community outreach efforts.

The objective of the Magnolia Sequestration project is to advance the commerciality of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Louisiana while supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); disadvantaged communities; and environmental justice communities. The project plans to complete detailed site characterization, including a water analysis well and performing a 3D seismic survey. Additionally, the Magnolia Sequestration project will conduct a pipeline front-end engineering design (FEED) study, perform risk assessment of the storage complex, prepare storage field development plans, and advance community outreach and engagement.

Susteon Inc. is performing an engineering-scale test of SUSTENOL™, its carbon capture solvent, at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) under real natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) flue gas conditions using the 0.5-megawatt-electric (MWe) pilot-scale solvent test unit (PSTU). The aim is to confirm and validate its carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture performance (greater than 95% CO₂ capture), thermal and oxidative stability, and low-solvent emissions in preparation for commercial demonstration and deployment. A techno-economic analysis will be performed by Trimeric and an environmental health and safety assessment will be completed by EI Group Inc.

This project is determining the feasibility of an integrated carbon storage project in central Mississippi. The project objective is to advance the commerciality of carbon capture and storage (CCS) while supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); disadvantaged communities; and environmental justice communities. The project team plans to complete detailed site characterization, including drilling a stratigraphic test well and analyzing site geology. Additionally, the project will model the storage reservoir, perform a risk assessment, conduct public outreach and engagement, and develop the needed plans to draft an Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI permit.

The primary objective of the project is to develop and test process technologies and circuits to produce rare earth metals, graphite, and other critical elements from a bituminous coal source that is known for its elevated concentrations of critical elements. Individual rare earth oxide (REO) products of dysprosium (Dy), neodymium (Nd), yttrium (Y), praseodymium (Pr), and samarium (Sm) at a minimum purity of 90% will be targeted along with the production of their corresponding metal products at a minimum purity of 99.5%. The project will evaluate and demonstrate the ability to produce salt products of critical minerals (CM) including cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), strontium (Sr), and lithium (Li) at a minimum purity of 90%. The carbon material in the feedstock will be upgraded by reducing the ash content to a maximum of 5% and subsequently processed to generate high purity (> 99.95 wt.%) graphite suitable for Li-ion battery anodes. New processes will be installed and tested in a pilot plant to reduce the cost of CM and mixed REO production by 20%.

The Texas Louisiana Carbon Management Community (TXLACMC) project is providing stakeholders in the fossil-fuel heavy, industrial corridor hub of Texas and Louisiana with crucial information about carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help bridge cost, environmental, and public education-awareness knowledge gaps. Leveraging the standing of universities as trusted local institutions with established relationships with their respective communities, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas A&M Kingsville, University of Houston, Lamar University, and Louisiana State University are utilizing their collective programs to relay this crucial CCS information. By establishing and developing a stakeholder community, this project is accelerating the situationally appropriate deployment of CCS as an emissions mitigation option for dozens of large volume industrial and power sector carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions sources in the area. TXLACMC is uniting capture and storage projects in the Texas-Louisiana industrial corridor for cross-project information transfer on all key planning and development elements for successful regional CCS implementation.

The objectives of this project are to demonstrate economic application, gas capture efficiency, operational control, and mechanical performance to accelerate commercial adoption of the Polar Bear™ technology. The project will demonstrate Polar Bear™ at wellsite(s) within the Williston Basin of North Dakota. The project will demonstrate gas recovery in two ways: 1) where only a portion of wellsite gas requires a boost in pressure and 2) where 100% of the gas must be compressed. Demonstrations will include capture of tank vapors, heater treater gas, production of liquids, on-lease gas use, and pressure management.

University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is determining the feasibility of developing a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) geologic storage complex in the northern shore of the Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska. The safety and economic viability of the complex will be determined by: (1) conducting a 2D seismic survey and using modeling techniques to help characterize the storage site; (2) conducting risk assessments of technical and non-technical risks; (3) developing a plan for subsequent detailed site characterization and permitting documents necessary to construct and operate a commercial geologic storage facility; (4) conducting technical and economic analysis evaluation of the entire proposed CO₂ storage scenario; (5) identifying community benefits and impacts of the proposed research; and (6) implementing regional-specific plans to engage communities and stakeholders. Potential CO₂ sources include a proposed dual-fuel capable power generation plant located at the Flatlands Energy Corporation site and two existing natural gas fired power plants operated by the Chugach Electric Association.

The objective of this project is to demonstrate a bench-scale system that can extract and produce high-purity germanium (Ge) and gallium (Ga) products from a lignite-derived mixed rare earth element (MREE) concentrate produced by the University of North Dakota’s (UND) pilot-scale MREE production facility. The produced Ge and Ga materials will be compatible with downstream industrial processes to integrate into clean energy and national defense products. The specific objectives of the project will involve the following: 1) Design and construction of the bench-scale system, 2) performance of shakedown and parametric testing of the system using pilot-scale MREE concentrate, 3) production of high purity Ge and Ga metals from MREE concentrate from selected Ge and Ga-rich lignite coal for product testing, and 4) performance of a techno-economic analysis (TEA) to evaluate the commercialization potential of the process.

This project aims to develop proven technologies for characterization and treatment of produced water (PW) with simultaneous rare earth element (REE), critical mineral (CM), and other elements of interest (EOI) recovery to improve treatment economics. Ohio University will develop a process to render treatment of oil and gas produced water for beneficial use outside of the oil and gas industries economically feasible. The objectives of the project include 1) characterizing produced water from characterizing PW supplied from specific sites, including sites in the Marcellus and Utica areas, 2) evaluating potential PW treatment processes that lead to treated water suitable for beneficial use in industries other than oil and gas production, 3) evaluation of batch electrochemical extraction processes to recover REEs, CMs, and EOI, and 4) demonstrating the recovery of REEs, CMs, and EOI that benefits the treatment process economically.

In this project, the project team will complete the following: (1) Genetically engineer enzymes aimed at depolymerizing the phyllosilicate minerals in shales by using both standard molecular biology wet lab methods and a machine learning program that has been internally developed to optimize activity, substrate specificity (phyllosilicate clays), thermostability, solubility, E. coli expression, and pH. (2) Develop by trial and error an optimal produced water composition to deliver the enzyme that retains its activity for in-situ application. (3) Identify and optimize operating conditions of the enzyme degradation reaction to maximize metal recovery from the leachate. (4) Develop a comprehensive process for effectively removing residual hydrocarbons and impurities from the leach solution, while concurrently determining the most suitable metal recovery method.

The River Parish Sequestration Project (RPS Project) is being developed to provide carbon dioxide (CO₂) transportation and storage service to large industrial emitters seeking decarbonization solutions in the Louisiana Chemical Corridor. This Phase III CarbonSAFE project aims to complete site characterization and permitting for three injection wells and new CO₂ pipelines from the sources to the injection sites. The project objectives are to perform detailed site characterization necessary to obtain a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Class VI Underground Injection Control authorization to construct, perform CO₂ source(s) feasibility and pipeline FEED studies, develop storage field development and community benefits plans, and finalize business and financial plan arrangements.

The objective of this project is to determine the economic and technical feasibility of developing a comprehensive intermodal carbon dioxide (CO₂) transportation hub on the west coast of Florida. The study is considering the design and development requirements for an intermediate CO₂ liquefaction and storage hub on a 6.7-acre parcel adjacent to an existing deep-water berth at Port Tampa Bay including necessary improvements and equipment installations to receive and discharge captured CO₂ from emitters throughout the region and the state via all transport modes including existing rail, truck, pipeline, and ship. Project goals are to determine the technical, physical, and regulatory requirements for the installation of CO₂ storage tanks, gas conditioning, liquefaction and transfer equipment, and extensions of nearby existing roads and rail lines into the site; evaluate the siting, design, and technical requirements for a minimum storage capacity of 30,000 metric tons (mt) which would support processing up to 2,000,000 mt of CO₂ captured in Florida annually for permanent sequestration; and determine the equipment requirements to receive captured CO₂ from ships which have onboard carbon capture and storage systems to be the first dedicated discharge site for such onboard captured carbon in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea region. Options will be considered to expand the capacity of the T-RICH site as more CO₂ is captured by emitters in the region and the state, in which case additional marine vessels would be built to transport the additional quantity of captured CO₂.

The Ankeron Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub project seeks to evaluate the feasibility of a regional DAC hub in the Pacific Northwest, advancing national goals of carbon removal and supporting the transition to net-zero emissions by 2050. Led by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the project will select and evaluate sites for large-scale DAC in a region with significant renewable energy production located on geologic storage resources in basalt formations. The hub is intended to support the communities and the net-zero emission goals of Oregon and Washington state by targeting the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) with a carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage capacity of more than 10,000 gigatons.

RMI will partner with Carbfix — a carbon utilization and storage company — and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL). DAC technology partners include Heirloom, Removr, and Sustaera. Carbon dioxide utilization partners include Twelve, LanzaTech, and Blue Planet. Other partners include Washington State University Tri-Cities and Washington Department of Natural Resources.

The hub will be designed to remove at least 50,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually, with long-term capacity to expand to more than 1 million tonnes. The Ankeron Hub will integrate renewable energy sources to power DAC processes and develop infrastructure for CO₂ transportation, storage and utilization. The Pacific Northwest’s natural assets, including its potential for CO₂ mineralization and abundant renewable energy sources, position the region as an ideal candidate for this DAC hub.

The project will undergo prefeasibility (Phase 0a) and feasibility (Phase 0b) studies, which will include development of a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP), business plan, financial plan and Community Benefits Plan (CBP). The CBP will consider U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals of community engagement; diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA); American workforce investment; and Justice40. Additionally, a life cycle analysis (LCA), safety and regulatory reviews, and a preliminary front end engineering design (pre-FEED) study will be conducted to ensure a robust, scalable design.

MicroBio Engineering Inc. will develop a novel agricultural technology based on cultivating nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria “blue-green” microalgae for use in commercial bioproducts ranging from organic fertilizer, crop and soil biostimulants, and higher-value pigments. Simulated lab-scale cultivation will select for ideal algal strains with high growth rates and productivities to be grown with simulated flue gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) in indoor and outdoor raceway cultivation trials. MicroBio Engineering will harvest the biomass with simple screens and settling. Harvested biomass will then be dried or stabilized for processing to bioproducts and evaluation as biofertilizers and biostimulants. The results of the cultivation experiments will determine CO₂ utilization efficiencies, as well as projections for scale-up costs, greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, and environmental and social impacts.

Molecule Works Inc. (MWI) is developing a compact, high-throughput, modular carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture unit proposed for onboard capture of ship exhaust in combination with CO₂ conversion and onboard electricity generation. The novel capture unit is based on MWI’s recent innovation of adsorption and heat exchange (AHX) reactor technologies that have the potential to reduce both capital and operating costs for onboard CO₂ capture application. The reactor performs similar to an efficient air-to-liquid heat exchanger, but also permits a high loading of active solid adsorbent powder into the engineered plates. The AHX unit can utilize low-grade heat in the form of 95°C hot water for regeneration. The Phase I objective is to develop a basic process design and conduct a feasibility study of the AHX capture unit for CO₂ capture on ships at a flue gas exhaust rate of 700 kg/min. Two CO₂ disposal methods will be considered for their integration with the AHX capture unit: (1) compression and liquification of CO₂ that can then be discharged on the port (where the CO₂ can be utilized), and (2) onboard electrochemical conversion of captured CO₂ back to oxygenated fuels with onboard electricity.

Southern States Energy Board will establish the groundwork necessary to support broad direct air capture (DAC) technology deployment in Mobile County, Alabama. The project team will complete front-end engineering design (FEED) studies required to support the construction and operation of two DAC technologies (developed by 8 Rivers Capital, and Aircapture LLC.), with an initial capture capacity of 50,000 net tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually for each DAC technology, for a total of 100,000 net tonnes of CO₂ annually in Phase 1. In addition, the project team will conduct a balance of plant (BOP) pre-FEED study for infrastructure that will be shared between the two DAC technologies, assess the low-carbon intensity energy sources, and evaluate the availability and suitability of existing infrastructure for reuse. The project team will also leverage existing relationships and ongoing carbon capture and storage (CCS) business activities and investments in the region and finalize requisite contractual agreements for construction and operation of the two DAC facilities, including the identification of a CO₂ saline storage solution.

Polaron Technologies Inc. will develop the “PREMAM” module, utilizing deep-learning techniques such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to forecast amine emissions from the host site and carbon capture processes in industrial and power generation plants. The project will involve constructing a robust forecasting model integrating time‐dependent process and emissions data, employing techniques such as Stacked long short-term memory networks (LSTM), Bi‐directional LSTM, and Convolutional LSTM. By prioritizing causal impact analysis, Polaron will assess emissions influences under different conditions and explore mitigation strategies using “what‐if” scenarios, leveraging data from the CESAR1 solvent testing campaign at Technology Center Mongstad (TCM) under different parametric tests. During Phase 1, Polaron aims to develop PREMAM, a data‐centric module, for forecasting amine emissions in carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture plants utilizing solvent-based systems. The project will integrate historical and present operational data and employ deep-learning techniques to construct a robust forecasting model under various operational scenarios. Polaron also plans to integrate the developed module into their in‐house data analytics platform, MatVerse.

Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (Palo Alto, California) and partners California Resources Corporation, Climeworks, Avnos, Kern Community College District, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Michigan, and California State University – Bakersfield will design and plan the initial deployment and future development of CalHub. Calhub is a regional direct air capture (DAC) hub which also includes a planned storage site and pipeline transport of CO₂. Low-to-zero carbon- emitting sources of energy will be studied. These sources will provide electric power and heat to the systems, including solar photovoltaic systems with lithium battery storage, shallow geothermal heat, and fuel cells with CO₂ capture, and expanding to include deep geothermal heat and power, natural gas combined cycle power plant with post-combustion CO₂ capture, and other forms of energy storage. A front-end engineering design (FEED) study for the initial deployment of the Hub will be completed, capturing 100,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year. Expansion of the Hub to at least 1,000,000 metric tons of CO₂ removed per year will be studied, resulting in a pre-FEED study of the balance of plant systems required to reach this capacity. The project will include a Community Benefits Plan including a Social Characterization Assessment; engagement and two-way communication with local community and labor groups; development of workforce training programs; analysis of net job impacts; development of concrete a DEIA strategy; modeling of air quality and renewable energy deployment; and development of a system for identifying, tracking, and communicating Justice40 impacts.

The primary objective of this project is to characterize the rare earth elements/elements of interest (REE/EOI) in coal combustion residual wastewater and solid wastes associated with coal power generation. The secondary objective is to demonstrate potential REE/EOI recovery. This project will work with participating utility companies and coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) to acquire unit information including plant feedstock type, combustion technology employed at the power generating units (PGUs), air pollution control devices (APCD) configurations, and coal combustion residue (CCR) storage type. Data and sample collection will be performed based on corresponding American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and/or Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) methods. Further, coal, CCR liquid and solid samples analyses for rare earth elements (REEs) and lithium will be conducted based on corresponding analytical methods. Potential improvements to the standardized analytical methods will be identified and documented. This project will also demonstrate one laboratory-scale electrodialytic recovery system for REEs and lithium in a simulated environment and actual waste from participating CFPPs.

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) is performing a comprehensive commercial-scale site characterization study at three proposed storage sites within the San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico to facilitate the development of the Four Corners Carbon Storage Hub. Characterization requires performing 2D and 3D seismic surveys, re-entering an existing acid gas injection well, and drilling two new stratigraphic test wells. Data obtained from the geologic characterization study and environmental analysis will be used to verify that each proposed site can securely store a minimum of 50 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in saline aquifers over a 30-year period. The project is preparing Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control Class VI permit applications for submission and approval, for each storage location. The project is also submitting an Environmental Information Volume and working with the U.S. Department of Energy National Environmental Policy Act office to issue either an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement.

The objective of the Paradise Kentucky CarbonSAFE II Project is to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility in Paradise, Kentucky, to store approximately 84 million tons (MT) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the Paradise Power Plant over a 30-year period. A primary project site has been identified at the Tennessee Valley Authority Paradise Power Plant facility, which is being evaluated for geologic suitability to store CO₂ using existing data and newly acquired data from drilling a characterization well and 2D seismic surveys (Task 2). The project team is also evaluating site-specific technical and non-technical risks, risk mitigation, and monitoring (Task 3). Task 4 combines these analyses to develop a plan for subsequent characterization of the site through a CarbonSAFE Phase III (Site Characterization) Project and the submission of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control Class VI Permit. Project tasks also include conducting an economic analysis that includes evaluating the potential for acquiring pore space and land access rights, and the potential methods for CO₂ transport to facilitate the storage project (Task 5). A Community Benefits Plan (CBP) is being developed to ensure affected communities benefit from project deployment, and adverse impacts can be mitigated wherever possible (Task 6). Finally, the Project Team is developing plans and materials for public outreach and conducting public outreach events to ensure the necessary “early and often” communication strategies that make projects successful (Task 7).

The project objective is to develop a system engineering approach for produced water resource extraction and management in oil and gas operations. Overall goals include: (i) testing a cascade treatment approach involving vacuum membrane distillation integrated with vapor compression to extract water, (ii) selectively recovering elements (metals) of interest using staged precipitation, (iii) developing an optimization framework for managing produced water (PW) and identifying infrastructure needs using software (i.e., PARETO) and techno-economic approach, and (iv) engaging with stakeholders, members and students of under-represented groups, state agencies, and members of the oil and gas sector to promote workforce development and community involvement focused on tackling produced water challenges.

The objective of this project is to investigate the concept that carbon dioxide (CO₂) injected into an unconventional oil reservoir in the Bakken Formation will result in incremental oil recovery while simultaneously storing CO₂, resulting in lower-carbon-intensity oil production. This objective will be met by conducting laboratory studies and field-based activities including a pilot test in a field laboratory aimed at injecting CO₂ for a minimum of 18 months into a Bakken reservoir for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and accounting for associated geologic storage of CO₂.

This project will build upon the work carried out under DE-FOA-0002404, Advanced Processing of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals for Industrial and Manufacturing Applications, to improve the process economics of rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals and materials (CMM) facilities that use conventional separations and recovery technologies and unconventional feedstock resources. The overall objective of the project is to design, develop, and deploy innovative process technologies to produce salable REE and critical minerals (CM) from acid mine drainage (AMD) feedstocks at a reduced cost to reduce our nation’s vulnerability to international competitors. In prior efforts, the project team has successfully developed and demonstrated technology to produce mixed rare earth oxides (MREOs) from raw AMD in an economic and environmentally benign matter. The current effort seeks to extend the process technology development further downstream to include novel technologies for (1) the separation of individual high-purity rare earth oxides, (2) the production of high-purity rare earth metals and alloys, and (3) the synergistic production of at least five target critical minerals. The process development activities of this project will focus on two state-of-the art technology platforms, namely task-specific ionic liquids for REE and CM separation and ionic liquid-based electrochemical reduction for the production of rare earth metals. Neither of these technologies is currently being used commercially, and both would represent a step-change with respect to technical performance, cost, and environmental impact relative to conventional approaches.

The Timberlands Sequestration CarbonSAFE Phase III project is designed to capture and transport two million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year from a pulp and paper mill in Wilcox County, Alabama to a CO₂ storage facility in Monroe County, Alabama. The project objectives are to demonstrate the technical and commercial feasibility of a carbon capture and storage project for the pulp and paper industry in Alabama that can be replicated and demonstrate initial storage site viability to position it as a large-scale storage hub for multiple emitters across Alabama. The project tasks include detailed site characterization, completion of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Class VI Underground Injection Control permit application, a pipeline FEED study, creation of development, business, and financial plans, and National Environmental Policy Act evaluation.

New Mexico Tech has implemented this two-year Regional Initiative project to provide technical and engagement support for stakeholders within the Four Corners region, with primary focus on New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, to develop a framework to accelerate the establishment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in the form of a carbon management hub. The project team is utilizing and refining existing data to fill significant knowledge gaps and identify and collate data characterization efforts towards stack storage systems within targeted complexes. The team is also developing best practices for cost effective drilling within existing brownfields containing potential depleted oil and gas zones.

The Tri-State Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Hub Project is a feasibility study for the development of a carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage hub in a three-county area of Ohio and West Virginia. the Project Team is characterizing four stacked geologic reservoir and caprock carbon storage (CS) systems to better understand their suitability for CO₂ storage and caprock competence. The project plans to complete three characterization wells from which whole/sidewall core, geophysical well logs, and well tests will be collected and conducted. The Project Team is developing an Environmental Information Volume (EIV) and characterizing the target formations through geophysical (seismic survey) methods. Plans for Storage Site Operations, Financial Plans and Arrangements, and Commercialization are being completed. In addition to this, the Project Team is developing a broad engagement effort to promote collaboration among state agencies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with the goal of facilitating large-scale deployment of CCS technologies in the region.

BKV dCarbon High West is assessing the technical, economic, environmental, and community-level feasibility of utilizing barges to transport carbon dioxide (CO₂) to the High West carbon sequestration site in southeastern Louisiana. The project plans to complete a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study that looks at various possible emission sources of CO₂ within 100 miles of the sequestration site and identifies optimal locations for loading, unloading, and storage infrastructure including the existing pipeline transportation network. The study is looking to aggregate at least one million tons of CO₂ per year for transport and storage from the Baton Rouge area and one million tons of CO₂ per year for transport and storage from the combined Pascagoula and Mobile areas.

The Central Appalachian Basin CO₂ National Network for Enhancing Carbon Transport Infrastructure Onshore/Offshore (CO₂NNECTION) Intermodal Transport Hubs project is developing a pre-Front End Engineering Design (pre-FEED) study of an intermodal transport hub. The project objectives are to design, engineer, and develop a multimodal network to transport carbon dioxide (CO₂) from sources to CO₂ sinks in the tristate region of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This effort is considering using existing regional infrastructure such as roads, rail, and river transportation methods as well as construction of new infrastructure.

Arizona State University (ASU) will complete a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a regional direct air capture (DAC) hub in the Southwest United States, with an initial capacity of at least 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year for each anchoring technology that is scalable to a total capacity of at least 1,000,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. Anchoring DAC technology developers for this Phase 1 DAC hub effort include Carbon Collect and Carbon Capture. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) support will be provided by Black & Veatch. The initial hub concept encompasses three planned sites, each supported by specific project partners. Proton Green will support the planned St. Johns Dome site in Arizona, New Mexico Tech and Tallgrass will support the San Juan Basin site in New Mexico, and the University of Utah will support the Paradox Basin site in Utah. Additional project partners include Carbon Solutions, which will provide modeling for determination of optimal hub design; the University of Arizona, which will assist with Tribal relations; and Side Porch, which will lead the financial ecosystem development. The team will prepare a FEED study for the integrated DAC system, as well as a balance of plant (BOP) pre-FEED study. Additional project scope includes a business plan, a financial plan, DAC hub data tables, a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP), a definition of initial DAC hub capacity, a Community Benefits Plan (CBP), a life cycle analysis (LCA), a storage development plan, an environmental health and safety (EH&S) risk analysis, an environmental information volume (EIV), updates on the Underground Injection Control Class VI permit to construct applications, optimal DAC hub modeling, and an integrated project schedule (IPS) for subsequent phases of DAC hub development.

The project is a bench-scale laboratory effort to develop an integrative process for achieving three beneficial uses for produced water—valuable mineral recovery, carbon fixation, and irrigation water generation. Produced water samples from the Marcellus Shale will be characterized; treated to remove solids, oil, and dissolved organics; and subjected to staged precipitation, re-dissolution, solvent extraction, and high purity metal compound production tests to recover critical minerals (CMs) and rare earth elements (REEs). Battery grade lithium carbonate will be precipitated; the remaining solution will be treated in phyto-microbial modules to desalinate and remove trace metals; and this treated produced water will be tested for suitability as irrigation water. A pre-pilot water characterization and processing circuit will be constructed and tested, and techno-economic analyses will be applied to the processing circuit and its individual components.

ZuCO2 Transport (ZuCO2) is assessing feasibility of kick-starting an affordable maritime carbon dioxide (CO₂) transportation hub that links California’s geologic storage resources in the Central Valley to captured CO₂ sources in California, Oregon, and Washington via tugboats and barges capable of navigating near-coastal and inland waters. The project plans to complete a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study and other technical and non-technical activities to examine the engineering, business, regulatory, workforce details and community impacts of starting and implementing the barge CO₂ transport system. Initial estimates indicate four barges could accommodate transport of one million metric tons/year of CO₂ based on an average estimated transit distance.

Advanced Resources International is determining the feasibility of developing a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) geologic storage hub near Monkey Island, Louisiana. The storage portion of the project will be the first developed on offshore Louisiana state lands. The safety and economic viability of the hub are determined by: (1) acquiring existing commercial seismic data covering areas of the prospective CO₂ storage; (2) drilling an onshore stratigraphic test well to obtain log and core data required to inform geologic and reservoir models; (3) conducting risk assessments of technical and non-technical risks; and (4) ensuring continuous community engagement and partnership. By its conclusion, the project plans to submit NEPA Documentation, and prepare a Geologic Catalog of Materials, a Storage Field Development Plan, and a CO₂ Pipeline FEED Study.

The Williams Echo Springs CarbonSAFE Storage Complex Feasibility Study is assessing the technical and non-technical aspects of an integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at a site adjacent to the Echo Springs Gas Plant in Carbon County, Wyoming. Planned characterization includes permitting and drilling a deep, approximately 12,000 feet below ground surface, stratigraphic test well and interpret the resulting data, which will provide the foundational information needed to determine the site’s suitability for future CarbonSAFE phases and commercial operations at the proposed carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage complex.

This project is evaluating the feasibility of a potential carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage complex in northeastern California through a comprehensive geologic characterization effort. Characterization work includes drilling a stratigraphic well, a well logging campaign, hydrologic testing, and a high-density gravity survey. To assess the viability of safely storing 50 million metric tons (MMT) of CO₂ over a 30-year period, the project team is conducting injection scenario analyses and estimating the footprint of the predicted pressure plume. The goal of this project is to demonstrate subsurface commercial-scale CO₂ storage in basaltic reservoirs, demonstrate safe and cost-effective CO₂ transport, and provide information to stakeholders and benefits to the community.

Calpine California CCUS Holdings LLC (Calpine) will conduct a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a post-combustion carbon capture system at the Pastoria Energy Facility (PEF) in Bakersfield, California. The PEF complex includes two separate natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) facilities, or power blocks. The carbon capture system will be sized to process all carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from power block 1 (PB1) — approximately 1.84 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) net CO₂ — using Honeywell UOP’s (UOP) Generation Two amine solvent-based technology, Advanced Solvent Carbon Capture (ASCC). The project team will conduct a FEED study, including developing the project scope and design, project design basis, engineering design package, and project cost estimate, and will perform a hazard operability review and engineering optimization studies aimed at optimizing the capital and operating costs for the facility.

Tetra Tech, Inc. will complete a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for a demonstration-scale rare earth metal (REM) and critical material production plant from coal-based resources. The study will address BIL priorities by completing the following objectives: (1) confirm quality and quantity of five years of feedstock reserves; (2) complete preliminary engineering design of the facility for the selected site; (3) identify and engage key project stakeholders; (4) update the project business plan; (5) understand environmental impact of the project and develop any required mitigations; and (6) implement a community benefits plan. The project is based on a modular REM, alumina, and lithium-carbonate production plant that will process claystone that has been exposed during surface mining of metallurgical coal for steel production. The expected outcome is to produce an investment package allowing for potential ownership or lending parties to make a financial investment decision to develop the facility.

The University of California Riverside's aim in this project is to create a critical minerals analytical facility to meet the needs of the emerging lithium industry in the Salton Sea region of the Imperial Valley, including training of a workforce.

The lithium industry will require a lab in the region for method development and optimization, operations, and battery research and manufacturing. The industry will require a highly skilled staff to meet evolving challenges and opportunities. There is currently nothing similar in place or planned in the region. The three tiers of instrumentation to be added to two newly renovated labs will provide a training environment. This training, through development of a multi-course curriculum, will include instruction in the classroom and hands-on in the lab. The requested equipment combination will enable scientists and instructors to cover topics spanning from research questions to routine and frequent analyses of samples from the energy industry.

The objective of this project is to continue development of the Emission Control Treater (ECT) from a 500 barrel per day (BPD) subscale ECT pilot system (see photo insert) deployed during a field trial to a 2,500 BPD oil capacity for commercial scale. The ECT is a new well pad processing technology that uses a fundamentally different process to achieve better separation, replacing existing equipment while eliminating nearly all emission sources on the pad. The technology replaces fired heater treaters through electrification or consolidation to a single fired heater with emission controls, eliminates tank vapors through better crude stabilization, removes or reduces the need for internal combustion engine driven compression, and is a simpler skid-based prefabricated process which eliminates most fugitive emissions. The modular nature of the ECT enables improved capital utilization through redeployment as production changes. The system is automated, with remote operations and continuous emissions monitoring and reporting, further reducing emissions by minimizing time to repair and reducing trips to the site.

This project involves engineering and construction of a commercial scale ECT system (2 units at 2,500 BPD oil capacity for commercial scale), followed by 6 months of field testing on a Bayswater pad in parallel with existing infrastructure. Colorado School of Mines will provide independent third-party measurement and validation of the resulting emissions and flaring reduction, comparing it to current technology. If successful, these activities would retire scaling risk, validate system operation, quantify emissions and flaring reduction benefits, and bridge the capital gap for commercialization, enabling advancement to a TRL 7-8.

Membrane Technology and Research Inc. and project partners will design, build and operate a transformational engineering-scale hybrid membrane-sorbent carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system at the St. Marys Cement plant located in Charlevoix, Michigan. The system contains two stages of membranes: the primary capture first-stage and the CO₂-enrichment second stage. A second-step sorbent provides polishing to remove additional CO₂ for deep decarbonization. The system will capture 3 tonnes per day (TPD) of CO₂ over a six-month test campaign. The project will show that greater than 95% CO₂ capture can be accomplished affordably while providing environmental and health benefits to society.

Baker Hughes will develop a framework and methodology to quantify and qualify the various attributes of a digital twin H₂-blended natural gas turbine system combined with point source carbon capture technology. Baker Hughes will demonstrate the robustness of various subsystems within the digital twin through simulating variable renewable energy load scenarios and qualify the twin architecture in simulation based on performance attributes defined at the start of the project. The digital twin will be updated with a validated point-source carbon capture systems model based on data generated from materials testing of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in fluidized-bed reactors, and the twin will be demonstrated at lab scale. The objectives are to: (1) validate digital twin architecture for blue hydrogen with carbon capture from natural gas turbines, with variable renewable energy loads as input and (2) perform a lab-scale demonstration of the proposed digital twin while achieving the DOE target of a 95% CO₂ capture rate.

West Virginia University will assess current and future remote sensing needs to support multidisciplinary applied research opportunities in distributed and sustainable energy development, carbon sequestration capacity, and ecosystem restoration on lands across West Virginia. Based on this needs assessment, WVU will research and acquire the most appropriate uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) or drone-based remote sensing technologies. These systems will likely include light detecting and ranging (LiDAR) and sound detecting and ranging (SoDAR) as well as multispectral and hyperspectral sensing technologies. WVU will then conduct demonstrations of these technologies.