Partnership to Test Underground Storage of Carbon Dioxide
By Bill Bartleman, The Paducah Sun, Ky.
Jul. 15–Three energy companies and the Kentucky Geological Survey plan to test the feasibility of storing carbon dioxide underground.
The Western Kentucky Carbon Storage Foundation is investing $7.8 million to drill a test well in Hancock County for the carbon sequestration test. The private partners are Peabody Energy, ConcoPhillips and E.ON U.S.
The state is providing about $1.4 million allocated in an energy bill approved during a special session last year. The energy companies will provide the remaining funds.
Peabody, the world’s largest coal company, and ConcoPhillips, the world’s fifth largest oil refiner, are studying the possibility of building a coal gasification plant in Kentucky that would produce a substitute for natural gas. The carbon sequestration project is part of the feasibility study for the project.
The test results also would be beneficial to Clean Coal Power Operations of Louisville, which is considering a $7.6 billion coal-to-liquid fuels plant in McCracken County that would produce up to 100,000 barrels of fuel daily.
The test is to confirm that carbon sequestration is feasible in Kentucky, said Rick Bowersox, chief geologist on the project for the Kentucky Geological Survey. The process involves pumping harmful carbon dioxide deep into the earth.
“We want to demonstrate the sequestration process prior to it being put into commercial use,” Bowersox said. However, he’s convinced the results will be positive because the rock formation in the region is conducive to containing the carbon, he said.
Design work is under way and by the first of the year an 8,300-foot test well will be drilled in Hancock County, Bowersox said. Testing will take several months, and he predicted a final report will be ready by the end of 2009.
Gov. Steve Beshear said positive results could spur an economic boom to develop gasification and other plants in Kentucky that use coal.
“The importance of carbon dioxide sequestration research for our state’s and the nation’s energy future cannot be overstated,” Beshear said.
“Kentucky has been a strong supporter of efforts to develop partnerships and projects such as this one, and the results from this testing are crucial in our quest to develop and implement clean coal technologies and become a world leader in energy production.”
Bill Bartleman can be contacted at 575-8651.
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