ADM – an American multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation, has proposed to build a 350-mile carbon capture pipeline that would transport liquified CO2 for injection in central Illinois from its ethanol plants in eastern Iowa. The proposed pipeline would be a third for the state.
The company’s carbon capture pipeline would have the capacity for 12 million tons a year of CO2 and could also serve other companies “looking to decarbonize across the Midwest and Ohio River valley.”
ADM already owns a sequestration facility in Decatur, Illinois that has injected more than 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide a mile and a half underground. The construction of an additional pipeline would enhance ADM’s industrial decarbonization efforts.
“ADM is continuing to lead the way to decarbonize the industries in which we operate,” said ADM official Chris Cuddy. “This is an exciting opportunity for ADM to connect some of our largest processing facilities with our carbon capture capabilities, advancing our work to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions while delivering sustainable solutions for our customers,” he added.
Other two companies are also proposing carbon capture pipelines in the area. Navigator – a midstream infrastructure company, wants to build a 1,200-mile pipeline across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota that would inject CO2 in the same part of central Illinois as ADM’s sequestration facility.
Relevant: Navigator CO2 Gets Green Light For Heartland Greenway Pipeline
Summit Carbon Solutions proposes a 2,000-mile pipeline from Iowa to North Dakota. It would require $4.5 billion and would sequester permanently the carbon emissions from 32 ethanol plants in five states throughout the US.
However, so far there is a resilient opposition from landowners, rejecting the pipelines passing through their lands mostly because of concerns related to safety and damage to their land. Each of the pipelines would also need approval from the Iowa Utilities Board to proceed.
Relevant: Farmers Reject Iowa Carbon Capture Pipeline
Carbon capture and storage is seen as a critical solution that would facilitate the transition from fossil fuels towards clean energy sources. It is a necessary tool for the short/ medium-term that would halt the emissions from industrial plants that cannot stop operation and are hard to decarbonize with other means. The third carbon capture pipeline proposed in Iowa could also show the way forward for other corporations emitting large amounts of industrial emissions.
