California Awarded $65 Million for Carbon Sequestration and Storage Research

The California Energy Commission today received $65.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB) research. WESTCARB is one of seven research partnerships co-funded by DOE to explore carbon sequestration opportunities and conduct regional carbon storage field tests. "By demonstrating how greenhouse gas emissions can be safely contained through carbon sequestration, we make strides to curb the effects of global warming," said Energy Commission Vice Chair James Boyd. "Using the newest carbon capture and storage technology, California can show how environmental and industrial concerns are working together for the same cause." WESTCARB will use the funding announced today to begin a geologic carbon dioxide (CO2) storage pilot project. The project, located 18 miles north of Bakersfield in Kimberlina (Kern County), will safely inject one million tons of compressed CO2, a major greenhouse gas, into potential geologic storage formations 7,000 feet beneath a 50-megawatt zero-emission power plant. The plant, owned by Clean Energy Systems (CES), uses natural or synthesis gas in an oxyfuel system to produce a relatively pure CO2 stream. The proposed test would inject the entire exhaust stream of the CES plant over a period of four years, beginning in 2011.
May 6, 2008 CEC Press Release
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