Ethanol Blog

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Archer Daniels Midland expects to build a 350-mile carbon dioxide pipeline from two ethanol plants in Iowa to the company's sequestration site in Illinois, the company announced on Tuesday, in signing an agreement with Wolf Carbon Solutions US LLC.

According to a news release from the companies, once completed the pipeline will have the capacity to transport 12 million tons of CO2 from ADM's ethanol plants in Clinton and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to a permanent underground storage facility in Decatur, Illinois.

The companies said the pipeline would have "significant spare capacity" to serve other third-party customers looking to decarbonize across the Midwest and Ohio River Valley.

The ADM announcement is the latest in a series of other similar projects announced during the past year.

Summit Carbon Solutions is led by Bruce Rastetter, an Iowa agribusiness leader who operates both pork and ethanol companies in the state.

Summit Carbon Solutions, which also has investment support from John Deere, is developing what could amount to 2,000 miles of pipeline.

At least 31 ethanol plants have signed on with Summit, including Green Plains Energy and five of its ethanol plants in Nebraska and Iowa. Summit's Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, estimated to cost $4.5 billion, plans to run through Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota and sink carbon dioxide into a geological formation in North Dakota about a mile into the ground.

Navigator CO2 Ventures, created by the Texas-based pipeline company Navigator Energy Services, is partnering with the investment firm BlackRock Real Assets as the major financial backer and Valero Energy Co., with eight ethanol plants that will connect to Navigator's Heartland Greenway pipeline.

The Navigator pipeline, projected at $2 billion in costs, will stretch 1,200 miles across Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and sink its carbon dioxide at two sites in Illinois near ADM's Decatur facility.

According to the news release on Tuesday, ADM already has stored more than 3.5 million metric tons of CO2 at the Decatur site.

"ADM is continuing to lead the way to decarbonize the industries in which we operate," said Chris Cuddy, president of carbohydrate solutions at ADM.

"This is an exciting opportunity for ADM to connect some of our largest processing facilities with our carbon capture capabilities, advancing our work to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions while delivering sustainable solutions for our customers."

Wolf Carbon Solutions is an affiliate of Wolf Midstream, a $4 billion energy infrastructure company based in Calgary, Alberta.

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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