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U.S. Representative Rick Boucher announced Wednesday that at his urging the U.S. Department of Energy is providing a federal grant in the amount of $1.8 million to advance ongoing clean coal research in Southwest Virginia. The federal grant will enable research on the potential to store CO2 in unmineable coal seams.
"This allocation of federal funding will enable Virginia Tech's Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research to advance its study of using unmineable coal seams in Southwest Virginia as possible sequestration media for CO2. Coal has a great capacity to store CO2, and injecting CO2 into coal seams increases the production of methane while the coal captures the carbon dioxide," Boucher said.
The federal monies announced today will fund a feasibility study for a large scale test of carbon dioxide storage, in which 100,000 tons of CO2 will be injected into a Southwest Virginia coal seam.
"The ongoing research in Southwest Virginia will enhance our region's economic development opportunities, making our region more attractive to industries requiring the use of carbon capture storage technologies, such as coal to liquids conversion facilities or biofuels plants," Boucher said. He also predicted that a large R&D facility will be constructed in the region to support the ongoing research into injecting CO2 into coal seams.
Today's announcement brings the total federal investment in the carbon storage project to $6.35 million. In 2004, the Department of Energy provided $150,000 for the first phase of this project, and the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research performed preliminary geological characterizations of several counties in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky in order to identify potential areas for CO2 storage. The second phase of the project began in 2005, and the Department of Energy provided $4.4 million at that time for a small scale test of carbon dioxide storage potential at a site in Russell County. This small scale test involving a 1000 ton injection will begin this summer and conclude in January of 2009. The funding announced today will be used for the planning stages of the large scale 100,000 ton test. That test which would occur between 2011 and 2017 would require a DOE investment of at least $60 million, according to Boucher.
In addition to the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech, several organizations and private companies, notably Dominion Virginia Power and Eastman Chemical Company, have provided financial resources and services for the project.
"When completed, this project will advance the research and development effort necessary to make carbon capture and storage technology widely commercially available, and I am pleased that the Department of Energy has provided this allocation of federal funding to further this goal," Boucher said.
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