ADM to Pump Ethanol Plant’s CO2 Under Illinois

What if I told you the Federal Government would be paying to experimentally inject 1 million tons of carbon dioxide into the ground under Illinois? And what if I said the CO2 would by supplied by an ethanol plant owned and operated by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)?

You’d say I was crazy, right?

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy awarded $66.7 million to investigate large-scale carbon sequestration programs in Illinois. The money was awarded to the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium, one of seven regional carbon sequestration partnerships funded by the DOE and consisting of private businesses, state entities, and local universities in the Illionois-Kentucky-Indiana geographic region. This is all part of the DOE’s 10-year initiative to establish and commercialize carbon sequestration.

The MGSC plans on injecting 1000 tons of CO2 into the earth’s crust per day every day for three years, at a depth of about 5,500 feet. Geologists working on the project estimate that the Mt. Simon Sandstone Formation in Illinois can hold up to 100 years of carbon dioxide emissions from major point sources in the region, keeping it sequestered for millennia.