Carbon America Proposes a Winning Project for Agriculture and the Community
A dynamic new land use is underfoot in Northeast Colorado. Instead of planting seeds, a Colorado company has big plans to bury carbon dioxide deep underground, helping to clean the state’s famous blue skies while bolstering the region’s ethanol industry.
Carbon America, the first vertically integrated carbon capture and storage super developer, or CCS, has proposed a project that would permanently remove 350,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually – equivalent to taking 70,000 passenger vehicles off the road – from Sterling Ethanol LLC and Yuma Ethanol LLC.
Fermented corn is used at the plants to produce ethanol – a renewable fuel made from plants to oxygenate gasoline to reduce air pollution. The projects will enable the two locations to reduce the carbon intensity of ethanol production and increase their competitiveness in the market while improving local air quality.
Carbon America is on a mission to quickly and safely capture and store as much carbon dioxide as possible. The end-to-end developer will finance, build, own and operate the commercial carbon capture and sequestration projects, which will safely catch 95% of the carbon dioxide released during the fermentation process of ethanol production.
The projects transport captured carbon dioxide via an underground pipeline to EPA-regulated and carefully monitored sequestration sites, which use sandstone and rock layers to permanently trap the gas at least 4,000 feet below the surface.
This exciting project will provide new economic opportunities for Colorado’s ethanol and agricultural industries, benefitting local corn growers who sell 36 million bushels of field corn to the plants annually.
“Our success is linked to fostering mutually beneficial partnerships with our stakeholders – including communities, landowners, local governments and regulators – to deliver CCS projects that provide environmental and community benefits while supporting good-paying jobs and regional economies,” says Carbon America CEO Brent Lewis.
The project, which will be eligible for federal tax credits designed to reduce carbon emissions, is currently targeted to be commercially operational in 2025.
