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As part of the Integrated CCS Pre-Feasibility phase of the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, the University of Utah and its partners will identify the conditions and attributes that will facilitate feasible and practical commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS). Objectives include identifying and quantifying technical requirements as well as attributes that maximize economic feasibility and public acceptance of an eventual storage project. These objectives will be achieved via a high-level technical evaluation of a proposed storage complex with multiple storage site options and CO2source(s). The primary outcome of the CarbonSAFE Rocky Mountains Phase I project will be a CCS template for existing and future coal-fired and natural-gas-fired plants in the Rocky Mountain states, with PacifiCorp’s Hunter Plant in central Utah exemplifying a typical generating station in the Rocky Mountains. The CarbonSAFE Rocky Mountains Phase I project team incorporates many institutions with extensive experience in CCS and site characterization activities, including the University of Utah, New Mexico Tech, Schlumberger Carbon Services, and Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories.
This project focuses on development of a pre-feasibility study for central Utah. The project goals include formation of a team capable of addressing technical and non-technical challenges specific to commercial-scale deployment of the CO2 storage project; development of a plan encompassing technical requirements as well as both economic feasibility and public acceptance of an eventual storage project; and high-level technical evaluations of the sub-basin and potential CO2 source(s). This project will support the DOE’s Carbon Storage Program goals to develop and validate technologies that will ensure 99% storage permanence, improve storage efficiency while maintaining containment effectiveness, improve industry’s ability to predict CO2 storage capacity to within ±30 percent, and develop Best Practice Manuals for key activities in developing and operating storage projects. The Rocky Mountains Phase I effort will also support the Carbon Storage Program mission to develop and advance CCS technologies, for widespread commercial deployment in the 2025-2035 timeframe, that will ensure safe, secure, efficient, and cost effective CO2containment in diverse geologic formations.
