Ethanol production is currently at the epicenter of the carbon capture and sequestration movement. Just ask two of the world’s most well-versed carbon experts. Sarah Forbes, deputy director for Carbon Management Technologies at the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management for the U.S. Department of Energy, has been working in the carbon space for the better part of her career. She helped stand up a carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) effort through the White House Council on Environmental Quality as its first director in 2021. Prior to that, she helped shape policy and the broader understanding of carbon capture technology possibilities in the U.S. and around the world. Today, she is helping to bring the former DOE Department of Fossil Energy into a new era, one that includes a department name change to better reflect the nation’s push to manage carbon. According to Forbes, ethanol production is top of mind right now for CO2 capture, sequestration or utilization projects big and small. It’s pure. It’s available in large volumes. And, with a whole lot to gain from monetizing capture, ethanol producers are eager to enter the play.“I don’t think we can underscore this enough,” Forbes says, “but this is an unprecedented time.” Forbes is referring to the entire gamut of CCUS funding opportunities, technical rollouts and real-life adoption of technology being explored to capture or store CO2 across the country—especially in the ethanol production sector. We spoke with Forbes and her CO2 counterpart from the DOE, Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the DOE, to help highlight where CCUS is now and where it's headed in the future.Why Carbon Capture Is On A Roll Like Forbes, Crabtree is a qualified expert in the field of carbon. Prior to helming the Carbon Management expansion at the DOE, he helped grow the nation’s understanding of carbon management in numerous roles. Both Forbes and Crabtree believe the rapid growth of CCUS projects and research across the country, and globally, is occurring for a few specific reasons.First, technology for carbon capture, storage or utilization is increasingly proven and scalable. “We have the technology today to scale up carbon management at a commercial scale,” Crabtree says.The U.S. is the leader, capturing roughly 20 million to 25 million tons of CO2 per year, a number Crabtree and Forbes believe is a fraction of what’s to come.Carbon capture is no longer seen as unattainable or technically impractical, either. “It is no longer a risk. It’s an opportunity, Crabtree says,” explaining that part of that opportunity is linked directly to a robust policy framework that reduces risk and creates an incentive to capture carbon. “Three to four years ago that wasn’t the case.”The policy framework in place today provides the 45Q tax credit (currently valued at $85 per ton of CO2 sequestered or $60 per ton utilized) and as of the last two years, government funding for CO2&nbsp; projects in the billions. On top of that, the 45Q tax credit has already been approved through 2032, so as Crabtree points out, there shouldn’t be any uncertainty surrounding the tax incentive the way other clean energy industries have been plagued by short-term and lapsing incentives. &nbsp;Since the 45Q came out, more than 100 carbon capture projects have been announced. Crabtree and Forbes expect there to be many more.And it's not just the 45Q tax credit driving the new-age of carbon capture. The work at the DOE is just getting started, Crabtree and Forbes say. The list of funded CO2 projects across the country continues to grow, but in late August, their team announced the DOE’s intent to launch a responsible Carbon Management Initiative. The work will help industry and project developers with safety, environmental stewardship, accountability, community engagement and other benefits related to carbon management projects. Although the ethanol sector is already well-versed in navigating the permitting, technological and sequestration aspects of CO2, other industries are not quite there, Forbes says. They are all watching the ethanol sector, she adds, including industries outside the United States. While ethanol production, fertilizer production or gas treatment have been the first major industries to adopt CO2 capture processes, others are lining up, including pulp and paper, steel, concrete and more, she says.Crabtree points out that other countries are following the U.S. as well. “This U.S. experience has really captured the imagination of countries and industries around the world,” he says. Although Norway, Denmark, Japan and other Southeast Asian countries are all heavily invested in carbon capture, the U.S. is still the leader. Interestingly, however, the U.S. is not currently engaged in offshore CCS, but countries like Brazil are. &nbsp;Carbon Capture: The Trajectory The ethanol sector's push to add carbon capture and utilization has revealed several facets of a growing industry. The technology is there. (Crabtree and Forbes like to hammer that point home). Policy is in place. Tax incentives are there as well. Now, as the ethanol sector continues to iron out the aggregation and transport of CO2, the DOE is working to help. It is focusing on multiple areas, especially infrastructure and community engagement.The DOE has funding to help with pipelines and storage sites. It has programs to help with advanced characteristics of underground storage facilities. And in the future, it will likely have infrastructure options for every industry participating in carbon capture. Crabtree hopes to develop 20 to 40 regional geologic sites across the country for industries to use.“Our strategy is that over the coming decade, no matter where you are, you are going to have an option for transporting and storing your CO2,” he says.That aspiration won’t come to fruition by infrastructure construction alone, he clarifies. Community engagement is an important piece. Although most industries and major carbon producers are now aligned with the benefits of capturing carbon, local communities in the path of infrastructure are less aligned, he says. The DOE is working to change that.On the subject of current CO2 capture projects, mainly pipelines, Crabtree says there are lessons to be learned about how projects should be developed. Community engagement strategies are important, he says, and it appears the industry may have been surprised by the opposition to infrastructure. Many landowners or communities don’t understand carbon, he says.According to Crabtree, CO2 pipelines are some of the safest we have, and the U.S. already transports commercial quantities of CO2 via pipeline. The DOE is now investing in—and requiring—community engagement planning for its funding applicants. Communities need to have a better understanding of technology that will be used. In addition to a community engagement plan, applicants will also have to show workforce development plans along with emission reduction expectations. “There are a lot of challenges in local acceptance of these projects we’re finding,” he says. “They will only be successful if there is local support.”The type of CO2 capture project happening across the U.S. continues to evolve. Ethanol production continues to be at or near the center of every type of project, Forbes says.North Dakota and the Upper Midwest is a great example of how ethanol is on the leading edge of carbon capture. Red Trail Energy LLC, an ethanol producer near Richardton, North Dakota, is operating a CO2 capture facility that injects roughly 180,000 metric tons of CO2 into an adjacent underground site. That project helped the DOE, ethanol industry and CO2 experts at the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) showcase their collective abilities.The EERC and the ethanol industry appear to be well on their way to another carbon capture project in North Dakota. With $38 million in funding from the DOE, EERC will help develop a CO2 storage hub in central North Dakota near the Coal Creek Station power plant and Blue Flint Ethanol facility. The storage hub could eventually store up to 200 million metric tons of CO2.The project showcases several of the benefits of the DOE’s push to enhance carbon capture across the country. Crabtree and Forbes believe that many industries are no longer looking at carbon capture as an option, but a necessary part of their future. Rainbow Energy Center LLC acquired the Coal Creek Station with the intention of capturing the carbon produced at the power plant. Rainbow made that clear from the start of its acquisition effort.“Carbon capture and storage is vital to continued operation of Coal Creek Station,” says Stacy Tschider, president of Rainbow Energy. Blue Flint Ethanol, a Harvestone Company, was the applicant for the class VI storage well that will be used in the project awarded $38 million by the DOE. Jeff Zueger, CEO of Harvestone, said the permit is part of the company’s overall vision to make its ethanol plants net-zero carbon. In addition to Blue Flint Ethanol, Harvestone operates Dakota Spirit, another ethanol plant in North Dakota, as well as Iroquois Bio Energy Co. in Indiana.As an indication of its growing ability to help promote and facilitate more carbon capture projects—not just from ethanol production—the DOE team is also excited to point out other projects in North Dakota. Through another funding round with the EERC, the state will demonstrate a lower-cost direct air capture (DAC) technology from Climeworks and permitted CO2 storage facilities at megaton scale. At the Prairie Compass Hub, Climeworks will deploy its DAC tech. Total DOE funding for the project was $12.5 million, with another $15 million coming from non-DOE sources for a total value close to $28 million. In August, the DOE announced roughly $1.2 billion to Texas and Louisiana for the build-out of two DAC projects that could be the largest to date in the world.In addition to carbon management, the DOE Fossil Energy team also manages hydrogen production, critical mineral innovation, the export of natural gas and a handful of other areas. But, according to Crabtree, it's carbon that garners the bulk of the work and attention of the team now. Places like North Dakota, where multiple carbon capture projects are taking place, will become the norm, they believe. Industry adoption of carbon capture, like that seen in the ethanol industry, will also be more common across other industrial sectors. Ethanol finds itself at the forefront of it all, potentially creating long-term changes in the way all industries look at carbon and opening up myriad new possibilities for both storage and utilization, Crabtree and Forbes say.“This is no longer a discussion of tech and policy. It is now about economics. This is no longer being seen as R&amp;D. It is now being seen as essential to the survival of so many industries,” Crabetree says. “It is no longer about managing a problem but is now a solution.”Author: Luke Geiver&nbsp; Contact: <a href="mailto:writer@bbiinternational.com">writer@bbiinternational.com</a>Printed in the 2023 October issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine

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Carbon capture efforts in North Dakota and the greater ethanol industry showcase the current and long-term vision of the U.S. DOE’s carbon management team. 

Digging Deeper: Ethanol’s Role In the Carbon Age

Digging Deeper: Ethanol’s Role In the Carbon Age

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Digging Deeper: Ethanol’s Role In the Carbon Age