Agribusiness giant ADM said on Tuesday it would reduce its carbon footprint by building a 350-mile pipeline to transport carbon dioxide for injection in central Illinois from its ethanol plants in eastern Iowa. It was the third planned carbon dioxide pipeline for Iowa. It was the third proposed carbon dioxide pipeline for Iowa, the No. 1 corn- and ethanol-producing state.
Carbon capture and sequestration, a relatively new concept, involves injecting the greenhouse gas into subsurface rock formations. ADM, the nation’s second-largest ethanol manufacturer, announced that its Decatur, Illinois sequestration facility has injected more carbon dioxide than 3.5 million tonnes a mile and a half underground.
ADM’s pipeline would have capacity for 12 million tonnes a year of the liquefied gas. There will be enough spare capacity, it said, to serve other companies “looking to decarbonize across the Midwest and Ohio River valley.”
A Texas pipeline company, Navigator, has proposed a 1,200-mile pipeline across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota that would inject carbon dioxide in the same part of central Illinois as ADM’s sequestration facility.
Bruce Rastetter, an Iowa businessman, would lead Summit Carbon Systems and construct a pipeline that runs 2,000 miles from Iowa to North Dakota.
“ADM is continuing to lead the way to decarbonize the industries in which we operate,” said ADM official Chris Cuddy. ADM’s three plants in eastern Iowa, one in Clinton and two in Cedar Rapids, account for 46% of the company’s ethanol production capacity. Out of 209 plants nationwide, Iowa has 43 ethanol plants that can produce 4.6 billion gallons annually.
Tax credits for companies are available from $12 to $50 per tonne of carbon sequestered. The type of project will determine which. There are proposals in Congress to increase the credit to as much as $120 per tonne, said Forbes. The Section 45Q credit could also be abolished.
Each of the pipelines would need approval from the Iowa Utilities Board to proceed, said the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Carbon capture and sequestration has been lauded as a tool against global warming but the technology is complex and not as efficient as hoped in capturing carbon dioxide from industrial processes, according to research commissioned by two environmental groups.
“Carbon capture is a mirage” because it is expensive and energy intensive, said Food and Water Watch. “The only solution is to rapidly transition to 100% renewable energy in combination with energy efficiency and a less energy-intensive food system.”
Wolf Carbon Solutions, which is a Calgary-based carbon cap and pipeline company, would be the owner and operator of the ADM pipeline.
Source: Successful Farming
