Feds allot $33 million to study carbon capture and storage in Pueblo region

Innovative technology that could improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions may soon be on its way to the Pueblo area.

The Colorado School of Mines, the Los Alamos National Library and a private company, Carbon America, were recently awarded a $32.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study carbon capture and storage in the Pueblo area.

Why bring carbon capture and storage to Pueblo?

Pueblo is an ideal location for carbon capture and storage because of the area's industrial activity and subterranean rock formations, Manika Prasad, a professor of geophysics at Colorado School of Mines, told the Chieftain. Prasad is also the director of the Mines Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Innovation Center.

Carbon dioxide, as well as other pollutants, are emitted during industrial operations. The pollutants could be captured before going into the atmosphere and transported nearby, where they would be injected into the ground.

Ashleigh Ross, vice president at Carbon America, told Pueblo City Council at a February work session she was initially a “skeptic” about carbon capture and storage. She said there is abundant data about injecting carbon dioxide under the earth, which the oil and gas industry has been doing for decades.

John Brown, the company’s external relations manager, said Carbon America specializes in capturing carbon dioxide during industrial production. The carbon dioxide is pressurized into a gas for transport, then injected at least 4,000 feet under the surface of the earth. The process requires a rigorous permitting process from the Environmental Protection Agency, Brown said.

Carbon America was founded in 2019 and is based in Arvada. Earlier this month, the company began drilling on a project on the Eastern Plains, according to the Akron News-Reporter.

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Community involvement moving forward

Prasad said project leaders want to involve the community over the next few years.

“We are looking at this as an exciting partnership with the region, rather than something that is going to happen there and people have to tolerate us,” Prasad said. “We don't want to be tolerated. We want to be welcomed and we want to be partnering.”

Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar told the Chieftain that the project “could be a good thing for Pueblo” — manufacturers could continue operating in the area while reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Gradisar said he and his staff have been emailing with project organizers but have not had many conversations aside from the presentation at the February work session. He said he has invited officials to present at another work session to talk about next steps moving forward.

Ross said in February that the innovation could help protect industry employees.

“I want to create a community decarbonization solution where we can decarbonize the existing industry, but we're really decarbonizing the workforce and providing some climate protection to those jobs,” Ross said.

When will this project get going?

The grant from the Department of Energy supports the project for the next three years. Carbon America officials told city council in February that the project would not come online until 2027-2030.

The 2021 federal infrastructure law championed by President Joe Biden is the source of this grant. This project was one of 12 projects in seven states that were allotted a total of $251 million for carbon dioxide transport and storage.

Industrial partnerships will also need to be finalized. Prasad said that she could not yet comment on potential sources of carbon because negotiations are still ongoing. It is unclear if Pueblo’s Comanche 3 coal-generating powerplant, set to close by January 2031, would be involved.

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Anna Lynn Winfrey is a reporter at the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Feds allot $33M to study carbon capture, storage around Pueblo