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.

Riley Ridge Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: Big Sky Partnership (lead by Montana State University-Bozeman) and Houston-based Schlumberger and Denver-based Cimarex Energy Company

Location: Riley Ridge, on LaBarge platform, Sublette County, Wyoming, USA

Start Date: Construction 2009; Operation 2015

Project was cancelled as it never got initiated after reviewing money from the DOE

Size: Total of 2 Million Tons (0.5 Mt/yr)

CO2 Source: A proposed gas and helium processing facility slated to be built at the base of the Wyoming Range, near Big Piney in Sublette County

Storage: The Nugget Sandstone formation at 11,000 feet depth

Motivation/Economics:

The US DOE awarded $66.9 million to the Big Sky partnership in November 2008. The project is expected to cost $130.6 million and last a total of 4 years.

Comments:

Wyoming is the largest producer of coal in the US and has promoted sequestration. This project will demonstrate the sequestration potential in the widespread eolian Nugget Sandstones. The plant would be built on a 34-acre tract of state school trust lands that sit atop the sagebrush-capped Riley Ridge in Sublette County, Wyoming. The site lies approximately 1.5 miles east of the Bridger-Teton National Forest boundary.

The facility would recover helium and methane from three horizontal gas supply wells drilled to depths of about 20,000 feet within the Madison formation, according to plans.

Project Link: Big Sky Partnership website

Other Sources and Press Releases:
Sequestration plant goes public (January 2010)
DOE completes large-scale carbon sequestration project awards (November 2008)
Overview of Big Sky geological activities Phase 2 and 3; David Bowen, BSCSP Annual Meeting Gallatin Gateway, Montana (2009) [PDF]