The Department of Energy has announced an award of $61 million to the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership for one of seven large-scale carbon sequestration projects now underway. The partnership will conduct large volume tests in Ohio to demonstrate the ability of a geologic formation to safely, permanently and economically store more than one million tons of carbon dioxide.

U.S. Senator George V. Voinovich, Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, personally requested DOE’s support for this award. He believes advancing carbon sequestration is a key component of comprehensive efforts to commercially advance clean coal technology to meet current and future energy needs and halt the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.

Industry partners will contribute $31.6 million to the project.

The MRCSP covers Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan and is led by Battelle Memorial Laboratories in Columbus. The project will demonstrate CO2 storage in the Mount Simon Sandstone formation. This geologic formation stretches from Kentucky through Ohio and has the potential to store more than 100 years of CO2 emissions from major point sources in the region.