Corpus Christi To Study Carbon Capture, Storage From Industrial Operations
The U.S. Department of Energy, through the agency’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, has awarded $16.4 million to the Port of Corpus Christi to be used for evaluating “the technical and economic feasibility of permanently storing capture carbon (CO2) from industrial operations,” the port announced February 1.
The funding for Corpus Christi was the only such grant awarded in the state of Texas and was the largest total grant announced by the Department of Energy. The funding will go to a pair of projects, one involving the collection of geology data onshore below port-owned property and a second under state-owned offshore tracts. The program is designed to accelerate development of a “centralized” solution for capturing and managing carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Collaborations
The onshore project will receive $9 million in funding and is a collaboration between the Port of Corpus Christi and Talos Energy Inc., with Howard Energy Partners and Texas A&M University. The offshore project is a collaboration between the port, 1845 Carbon Storage LLC, Strategic Sequestration Development LLC and the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology’s Gulf Coast Carbon Center.
“We applaud the Biden administration for making such a direct and demonstrative investment in industrial carbon management solutions with the [Department of Energy’s] CarbonSAFE Program,” said Port of Corpus Christi CEO Sean Strawbridge. “This award is a significant and historic step in the Port of Corpus Christi’s ambition to position the Texas Coastal Bend region as the nation’s premiere carbon management hub, recognizing our customers have already made significant decarbonization commitments to their shareholders and society at large.”
Each project has a goal of storing a minimum of 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over a 30-year period, according to the port. Matching funds for the projects will come from the port’s private-sector collaborators. The port’s contribution will come in the first of “community benefits programming,” like a new mobile learning lab and development of decarbonization and climate-specific Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum for Texas schools.
“As Port of Corpus Christi staff and industry partners work in the background to submit a full application of its Horizons Clean Hydrogen Hub, this award from the [Department of Energy] will accelerate our efforts on another front to support the federal administration’s decarbonization objectives,” said Charles Zahn, chairman of the port’s board of commissioners. “This funding represents a gateway to new jobs and new opportunities for our community in an entirely new sector of the clean energy economy.”
