CCS Activities Being Performed by the U.S. DOE

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is the lead federal agency for the development and deployment of carbon sequestration technologies. Its mission includes promoting scientific and technological innovations and transfer of knowledge for safe and permanent storage of CO(2) in the subsurface. To accomplish its mission, DOE is characterizing and classifying potential geologic storage reservoirs in basins throughout the U.S. and Canada, and developing best practices for project developers, to help ensure the safety of future geologic storage projects. DOE’s Carbon Sequestration Program, Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative, administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), is identifying, characterizing, and testing potential injection formations. The RCSP Initiative consists of collaborations among government, industry, universities, and international organizations. Through this collaborative effort, a series of integrated knowledge-based tools have been developed to help potential sequestration project developers. They are the Carbon Sequestration Atlas of the United States and Canada, National Carbon Sequestration Database and Geographic System (NATCARB), and best practice manuals for CCS including Depositional Reservoir Classification for CO(2); Public Outreach and Education for Carbon Storage Projects; Monitoring, Verification, and Accounting of CO(2) Stored in Deep Geologic Formation; Site Screening, Site Selection, and Initial Characterization of CO(2) Storage in Deep Geologic Formations. DOE’s future research will help with refinement of these tools and additional best practice manuals (BPM) which focus on other technical aspects of project development.