Draft2:Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership
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The Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB) is a public and private sector partnership aimed at understanding the technological and economic feasibility of carbon capture and storage. It is led by the Southern States Energy Board and the National Energy Technology Laboratory but also includes federal and state government efforts as well as academia, industry, and non-profit contributions. SECARB is a three-phase program of characterization, validation, and development. It is one of seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP's) created by DOE in 2003 to explore carbon sequestration opportunities in the United States and Canada.
Topics at DOE
DOE's Office of Fossil Energy has created a network of seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP's) to help develop the technology, infrastructure, and regulations to implement large-scale CO2 storage (also called carbon sequestration) in different regions and geologic formations within the nation. Collectively, the seven RCSPs represent regions encompassing:
- 97 percent of coal-fired CO2 emissions
- 97 percent of industrial CO2 emissions
- 96 percent of the total land mass
The RCSP's are funded by DOE, state and local governments, and private partners. The DOE combines the findings from SECARB with other RCSP programs to build a national carbon storage atlas (NATCARB).
Mission
The primary goal of SECARB is to develop the necessary framework and infrastructure to conduct field tests of carbon storage technologies and to evaluate options and potential opportunities for the future commercialization of carbon storage in the region. The Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB), managed by the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB), represents a 13-State region, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, and portions of Kentucky and West Virginia. [1]
Core functions
The core functions of SECARB are to:
- Characterize the region's geologic storage options, both onshore and offshore
- Identify barriers and opportunities for the wide-scale construction of pipelines to transport carbon dioxide (CO2) for the purposes of storage, EOR, and other commercial uses
- Monitor Federal and State regulatory and legislative activities
- Support local, regional, national, and international education and outreach efforts related to the SECARB and the RCSP initiative.
There are more than 900 large, stationary sources of CO2 in the SECARB region, which are targets for future carbon storage projects. Their total annual emissions are estimated at slightly over 1 billion metric tons of CO2. Fossil fuel-fired (coal, oil, or gas) power plants are the largest contributors, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the total CO2 emissions. The SECARB region also hosts a number of non-power related stationary sources of CO2. These include, in descending order of CO2 contribution, refineries, ethylene plants, cement plants, gas processing plants, iron and steel plants, and ethylene oxide plants.
Phase I
During Phase I, the characterization phase, sites of stationary CO2 were confirmed, as were sites for potential carbon storage.
Phase II
Phase II, the validation phase, involved conducting field tests to verify the carbon deposits. Four sites were selected for testing in Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia.
Phase III
Phase III, the development phase, involves field testing of carbon sequestration efforts. It began in 2007 and is currently in its closing and monitoring phase. SECARB is currently evaluating two opportunities for large-scale CO2 storage Development Phase field projects. The Early Test, currently underway
Two projects are currently underway and close to finishing. The Anthropogenic Test at Alabama Power Company's Plant Barry in Bucks, Alabama comprises a fully integrated CO2 capture, transport, and storage project. The CO2 generated at Plant Barry will be captured on-site, transported by pipeline and stored within a deep saline formation at the Citronelle oil field operated by Denbury Resources. It is expected to store at least 100,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.
The second project is located in Cranfield, Mississippi and has injected 2.5 million metric tons of CO2 since April 2009. This project focuses on Enhanced Oil Recovery efforts, the long-term storage of a large-scale amount of CO2, and the effects that large volume of CO2 has on the storage formation.[1]
Related Links
- Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships
- Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (Big Sky)
- Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership (PCOR)
- Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC)
- Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP)
- Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP)
- West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB)