Carbon Transport

Technology Area Overview

The Carbon Transport technology area is designed to identify technical gaps, prioritize research needs and develop tools to facilitate and optimize a robust, national-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) transport infrastructure. The near-term goal for 2030 is to expand the nation’s capability to transport 65 million metric tons of CO2 per year. The long-term goal for 2050, aligned with a net-zero carbon emissions strategy by midcentury, is to ensure the capability to transport 1 gigatonne of CO2 per year.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) is working with other federal agency partners—including the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management—to ensure a safe and reliable CO2 transport network that supports the deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage and carbon dioxide removal.

Initial program activities in Carbon Transport include:

  • Developing projects that will complete front-end engineering design (FEED) studies for regional-scale anthropogenic CO2 pipeline projects that can contribute to economies of scale; transport volume growth; support system efficiency of energy use and economics; and maximize optionality and connectivity of disparate CO2 source, conversion, and storage locations.
  • Supporting, in coordination with DOE’s Loan Programs Office, a mechanism to provide Future Growth Grants that expand the capacity and breadth of large-scale transport networks to allow future, not-yet-developed sources of CO2 to rapidly join the networks without requiring additional infrastructure development.
  • Developing pre-FEED studies for infrastructure that facilitates intermodal transfer and temporary storage of CO2 in regional and national CO2 transportation networks. Such facilities will allow CO2 streams with different physical characteristics (temperature, pressure) and trace chemical constituents to be efficiently integrated into the transport networks and accommodate variations in flow rates and capacities among different transport modes.
  • Sponsoring a Carbon Management Collegiate Competition in which collegiate students were tasked with proposing a regional carbon transport network, defining its business model, and optimizing the transport network across several parameters and with consideration to regional stakeholders, challenges, and cost variability.

In addition, FECM has conducted a series of collaborative, multidisciplinary workshops that have focused on:

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in the news worker

News: DOE Welcomes New Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Safety Measures Announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
New CO2 pipeline safety measures were announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on May 26, 2022. To read more about how DOE will incorporate PHMSA’s guidance into its research, development, demonstration, and deployment portfolio click

News: 2023 FECM / NETL Carbon Management Research Project Review Meeting Proceedings Posted
The proceeding from the 2023 FECM / NETL Carbon Management Research Project Review Meeting held August 28 - September 1, 2023 are posted for the following programs: Point Source Carbon Capture, Carbon Dioxide Removal, Carbon Conversion, and Carbon Transport & Storage.

News: Carbon Matchmaker Tool and Carbon Management Interactive Diagram Released
DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) released two interactive resources to assist with advancing carbon management technologies and infrastructure in the United States: The Carbon Matchmaker Tool and the Carbon Management Interactive Diagram.

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