CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Carbon dioxide from an Illinois ethanol plant is being injected underground in the largest U.S. demonstration of carbon sequestration, scientists said.
The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium said 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide being captured from the fermentation process used to produce ethanol at Archer Daniels Midland Co.'s corn-processing complex in Decatur, Ill., will be stored permanently in sandstone more than a mile beneath the Illinois surface.
The carbon dioxide is compressed into a dense-liquid to facilitate the injection process and permanent storage at a depth of 7,000 feet.
"Establishing long-term, environmentally safe and secure underground CO2 storage is a critical component in achieving successful commercial deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage technology," Chuck McConnell, head of the U.S. Energy Department 's Office of Fossil Energy, said Monday in a release.
The $96 million Illinois Basin-Decatur Project was funded in 2007.
Robert Finley, leader of the Illinois State Geological Survey's sequestration team, said the Mount Simon Sandstone is the thickest and most widespread saline reservoir in the Illinois Basin, which covers two-thirds of Illinois and reaches into western Indiana and western Kentucky. Finley said several layers of shale serve as an impermeable cap rock to hold the carbon dioxide in place.
