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.

Lake Charles Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: Leucadia Energy (Mississippi Gasification), Denbury, General Electric, Haldor Topsoe, Black & Veatch, Turner Industries, and The University of Texas's Bureau of Economic Geology

Location: Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA

Start Date: Injection (2014)

Size: 4.5 Mt/yr

CO2 Source: New methanol plant: Co-generation coke-to-chemicals (methanol) plant

Storage: EOR in West Hasting's oil field, Texas

Project Status: Cancelled in October 2014

Motivation/Economics:

Total project cost: $435.6 million. DOE share: $261.4 million

The DOE awarded the Lake Charles Project $540,000 ICCS program funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in June 2009. In June 2010, the project was one of 3 projects to receive $261 million from the ARRA. This money was matched by $368 million in private funding.

The project was cancelled in October 2014. The remaining unspent money from the DOE will be returned.

Comments:

The CO2 will be delivered to the West Hasting's oil field in Texas for EOR via a 12-mile connector pipeline to an existing Denbury interstate CO2 pipeline.

In May 2007, the project was awarded $1 billion of tax-exempt Gulf Opportunity-Zone Bonds (“GO Zone Bonds”) that were issued into escrow in April, 2008. The project has signed technology licensing agreements with major vendors and has initiated front-end engineering and design work. The project has filed for its environmental permits and has received its draft air permit from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The project will capture over 85% of its CO2.

On May 10, 2013, in a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) the DOE found that that Leucadia Energy’s Lake Charles CCS project could have “minor adverse” impacts on surrounding environment during construction and operations, as well as “negligible” impact on climate and air quality and groundwater during that time.

Project Link: Leucadia one of 12 projects selected for DOE funding (June 2010)

Other Sources and Press Releases:

DOE issues final approval for Lake Charles CCS project funding (January 2014)
Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Research, Development, and Demonstration at the U.S. Department of Energy (June 2013)
DOE's ICCS Project Fact Sheet 2011 [PDF]
Leucadia Presentation to NETL on Lake Charles Project [PDF] (September 2010)
Leucadia Energy website