Carbon Pipeline to Improve Ethanol Plant and Ag Profitability, Developer Says
A new initiative underway by Summit Carbon Solutions is being developed to lower the carbon intensity score of ethanol plants and, thereby, increase their competitiveness and profitability.
The goal is to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the exhaust stream of 31 ethanol plants in a five-state region in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, according to Jimmy Powell, chief operating officer for the Ames, Iowa-based company.
To accomplish this, the company plans to capture the carbon dioxide from the fermentation process of the plants, compress it into liquid form, then move it by pipeline to North Dakota. There, it will be permanently stored underground in what the company calls deep geologic storage locations.
“It's the largest pipeline project in this country in the last four or five decades,” Powell told Chip Flory on AgriTalk, on Thursday.
Powell said the company leadership believes the pipeline will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of ethanol production and enhance the long-term economic viability of the ethanol and agriculture industries.
Landowner Talks Underway Now
The company plans to break ground on the pipeline in March 2023 and be in operation by the second half of 2024.
“We’re talking to landowners and farmers right now in all five states and working with them to try and reach an agreement to allow us to install the pipeline on their property,” Powell told Flory.
He said the company will be paying landowners a premium for access to their land and that the reactions have been mostly positive.
“Let’s be honest – we’re trying to buy something that’s not for sale,” Powell said. “When we explain the benefits, landowners typically understand, so we feel we’ve had a good reception.”
Powell said the landowner will have 100% access to the surface ground above the pipeline, which will vary in size from as small as 4” in diameter up to 24” as it goes into South Dakota.
“The amount of disruption (will not be) that much. The ground can still be planted to crops,” he said.
Demand For Lower Carbon Fuels
The pipeline project is “hugely important,” says Monte Shaw, executive director for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
“Our key markets are increasingly telling us that they want lower carbon fuels – whether that's the largest domestic market we have, which is California, or whether that's the largest export market we have, which is right now, Canada,” he said. “If we're going to have ethanol compete, we need to be low carbon, we need to be lower carbon.”
Shaw said he believes with projects like carbon capture and sequestration, coupled with new farming techniques, that the U.S. ethanol market will be able to produce a carbon negative fuel.
“That is something a windmill can't do, a solar panel can't do, a battery can't do,” he said. “We could literally be the tip of the spear in this area. But we can’t do it if we don't capture the CO2 that comes off the fermentation and then do something with it.”
“As one of the largest private investments in the region, Summit Carbon Solutions’ project will generate thousands of jobs during construction and hundreds of full-time jobs once operational,” information on the company website notes.
The entire conversation on AgriTalk is available here:
