As of September 30, 2016, the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies program at MIT has closed. The website is being kept online as a reference but will not be updated.

Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (IL-CCS) Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: Archer Daniels Midland, Schlumberger Carbon Services, Illinois State Geological Survey and Richland Community College

Location: Decatur, Illinois, USA

Start Date: 2016

Size: 1 Mt/yr

CO2 Source: Ethanol plant (capture using Alstom’s amine process)

Storage: Sequestration in Mount Simon Sandstone

Motivation/Economics: Total cost $208 million. DOE share $141.5 million (68%)

Archer Daniels Midland (June 2010) was selected to receive an additional $99 million in federal aid for the IL-CCS project.

Comments:

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) operated the Decatur project as part of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Development Phase III, its large-scale project phase. The Decatur project successfully captured and stored 1 Million tons of CO2 from 2011 to 2014. The Decatur project is complete and is now in the monitoring stage and is currently showing no sign of leakage or movement out of the injection zone.

With the successful completion of the Decatur project, ADM continued onto the larger scale IL-CCS project where 1 million tons of CO2 are to be stored per year. Site characterization and permitting of IL-CCS started in 2011. New U.S. laws required the injection wells to be permitted under the new U.S. Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI well permit. On July 25, 2011 the permit applications for the 2 injection wells were submitted. After a delay of almost 3 years, the EPA granted in April 2014 the project its draft Class VI well permits and then the full Class VI permits in September 2014. The project is now scheduled to start injection in early 2016.

The CO2 is sourced from the Archer Daniels Midland Company bio-fuel plant. The CO2 is a >99% pure stream which is a by-product of fuel-grade ethanol production via anaerobic fermentation. This project will be the world's first large-scale CCS project from a bio-fuel source.

The target formation, the Mount Simon Sandstone, was selected as the optimum saline sink because of its widespread nature and immediately overlying Eau Claire shale seal. The formation is at a depth of 7000 feet below the surface. The 460 meter thick sandstone has porosity of <20% and permeability of approximately 26 mD. The Eau Claire shale is a thick shale (100-150 meter) with no resolvable faulting and additional seal formations overlying it.

Deliverables:

Start CO2 injection in 2016

UIC Class VI operating permit June 2015

Final Class VI permit issued December 2014.

Awarded one of two Class VI well permit in September 2014

Awarded draft Class VI well permit in April 2014

Two monitoring wells drilled November 2012

UIC Class VI permit application July and September 2011

Project Link: Illinois Basin Decatur Project & ADM Industrial CCS Demonstration (February 2015)

Other Sources and Press Releases:
ADM CCS Projects: UIC Class VI Permitting Experiences (April 2015)
ADM carbon capture nears initial goal; second permit sought (November 2014)
GHGT-12 paper: Commercial-Scale CCS Project in Decatur, Illinois – Construction Status and Operational Plans for Demonstration (October 2014)
EPA Grants First Underground Injection Permits to FutureGen for Illinois Project (September 2014)
Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage Project overview (2013)
Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage Project presentation (June 2012)