CU carbon project gets Phase II funding

City Utilities is among several Missouri utility companies that expects $2.4 million in new federal funding announced last week to improve clean energy prospects.

Sen. Kit Bond was in Springfield on April 7 to update the status of the Missouri Carbon Sequestration Project and to announce the federal funding for Phase II of the program.

The project, being conducted at CU’s Southwest Power Station, is testing the feasibility of injecting carbon dioxide from power plant emissions into underground formations, where it will be contained – or sequestered – indefinitely. The Missouri project is shallow sequestration because of the depth of the holes to be drilled in comparison to sequestration project standards.

Bond said such projects are essential to offering clean options to meet growing energy demand.

“In Missouri, we depend on coal. We get more than 80 percent of our energy in Missouri from coal,” Bond said, noting that demand for electricity is expected to grow nationally by 26 percent by 2030.

In 2006, the Missouri University of Science and Technology determined that the Lamotte sandstone beneath CU’s Southwest Power Station could work well for the project because of its open structure capped by a layer of solid granite.

In 2008, the project received $2.4 million in funding with a match of $578,000 split evenly among the participating utility companies. Phase II funding involves an identical match from the five utilities: CU, AmerenUE, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., Empire District Electric Co., and Kansas City Power and Light.

The second phase of the project comprises site drilling, coring and geophysical testing using food-grade carbon dioxide, and drilling could begin in the next few weeks,  according to CU Manager of Environmental Compliance Gary Pendergrass.

“Exploratory drilling will take about four months, and then the universities and DNR will take about six months to do all the evaluations,” he said.

Once the initial research is complete, the group will put together a permit application for the wells to be used for injection testing.