The project will capture and store one million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year produced as the result of processing corn into fuel-grade ethanol from the nearby Archer Daniels Midland biofuels plant.
Storage of CO2 at the facility will result in a net reduction of atmospheric CO2, leading to negative carbon footprint.
The project is designed to sequester about 2,500 metric tons of CO2 per day in the saline Mount Simon Sandstone formation at depths of about 7,000ft.
It is estimated that the sandstone formation can potentially store billions of tons of CO2 and has the overall potential to sequester all of the more than 250 million tons of CO2 produced each year by industry in the Illinois Basin region.
