United States – Illinois Basin – Decatur Project (IBDP), a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project designed to evaluate and test the technology at commercial scale, has been finalized by ADM and the University of Illinois.
The first-of-its-kind project was funded primarily by the United States Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory through the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC), with the goal of confirming the Mt. Simon Sandstone’s ability to accept and store one million metric tons of carbon dioxide during a three-year period, the equivalent of annual emissions from almost 1.2 million cars. The Illinois State Geological Survey of the University of Illinois conceived, executed, and managed the project with the help of the MGSC, and ADM served as the host and operator.
Injecting carbon dioxide underground
The project utilized 20,000 feet of wells to successfully inject carbon dioxide from ADM’s processing plant more than 6,500 feet underground. More than 2,000 visitors from 30 countries have come to the site throughout the project to learn more about the process and technology.
“The Illinois Basin – Decatur project has successfully achieved its desired outcome to demonstrate that carbon capture and storage can be undertaken safely and effectively,” said Sallie Greenberg, Principal Scientist Energy & Minerals, Illinois State Geological Survey.
ADM also began injection operations at a second CCS project, the Illinois Industrial Sources Carbon Capture and Storage Project, in Decatur in April 2017. The project is currently permitted to operate through 2022 and has the potential to store up to 5.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Collectively, these two projects have successfully stored more than 3.4 million metric tons to date.
