Officials share why Decatur is prime location for carbon sequestration projects (2024)

DECATUR— Decatur could soon be home to a carbon dioxide pipeline pumping the liquified gas all the way from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

On Monday, some community members got the chance to learn about what that project could look like — and about why Decatur is coveted land for the process of carbon sequestration.

“Decatur is, in the carbon capture and storage industry, a household name,” said Sallie Greenberg, a principal research scientist at the University of Illinois and the Illinois State Geological Survey. “Everybody knows the work that's been done here, and it's a model for what's being done around the world.”

Archer Daniels Midland Co., the Illinois State Geological Survey and Richland Community College on Monday led an information session for local leaders to learn about carbon sequestration in Decatur.

The carbon capture and storage (CCS) process is meant to reduce carbon emissions by storing carbon dioxide underground. The process involves capturing CO2 produced by industrial activity, then purifying and compressing it into liquid form. The liquified carbon is then transported via pipeline to storage wells thousands of feet below ground.

“What makes Decatur a great location for carbon storage is, plain and simple, the rocks,” Greenberg said.

Decatur’s geological make-up provides optimal ground for CCS, with an extra bonus in an effective sealant rock layer.

ADM has been a pioneer in CCS and has been operating carbon storage wells in Decatur for over a decade.

ADM’s current CCS wells store CO2 produced during the ethanol fermentation process at the company’s Decatur plant, Greenberg said. But the newly proposed pipeline would necessitate the creation of multiple new wells that will be used to store carbon produced in Iowa and transported to Decatur.

The proposed pipeline is a project of Wolf Carbon Solutions, a Colorado-based energy company that owns and operates the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line. The Alberta pipeline is the only private carbon capture and sequestration system in North America.

Nick Noppinger, senior vice president of corporate development at Wolf Carbon Solutions, said he could not share exact locations for where the new wells would be constructed and through where the pipeline would travel.

Noppinger said the company is already taking action to avoid potential land disputes.

“Wolf Carbon Solutions has never used eminent domain, in the collective careers of all the people running this company, both at Wolf and prior companies. It's just something that we don't need to do when we develop these long-haul pipelines,” he said. “It is a complete last resort in the pipeline industry. So we don't envision using eminent domain at all, for the development of this 280-mile pipeline. We are already out there developing relationships with landowners.”

As proposed, the pipeline will run from Cedar Rapids to Clinton, Iowa, then southeast into Central Illinois. The pipeline will be buried “at least five feet deep,” Noppinger said.

Wolf has not yet filed its plans with the Illinois Commerce Commission, but Noppinger said the company has plans to do so by late January or early February. Further negotiations would begin at that point.

Nicole Bateman, president of the Economic Development Corporation of Decatur and Macon County, said the new pipeline could benefit businesses and create new jobs in the county.

“There will not only be jobs in the building of the pipeline, but also jobs in the continuous monitoring of the wells and of the pipeline,” Bateman said. “But more importantly, jobs (will be brought) to the community by the companies that are going to set up the facilities here, not only in Decatur and Macon County, but in the entire region to take advantage of this new asset that we have.”