Gerald R. Hill: hill@sseb.org
Kimberly Sams: sams@sseb.org
Please visit the official SECARB website
Membership Opportunities
The Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, or SECARB, is a program underway at the Southern States Energy Board to define the role for clean coal in a carbon-constrained world and balance the environmental effects of existing and prospective power generating facilities.
SECARB is a $130 million program established in 2003 and managed by SSEB with the primary goal of identifying major sources of carbon emissions, characterizing the geology of a 13-state region, determining the most promising options for commercial deployment of carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration technologies in the South, and validating the technology options through carefully executed field testing through 2017.
The Partnership is comprised of more than 100 active industry, government, academic, and non-profit participants who provide leadership to address climate change through solutions such as CO2 sequestration. SECARB is one of seven regional partnerships nationwide and co-funded by the United States Department of Energy and SECARB partners. The SECARB program is divided into three phases.
Phase I (2003-2005) focused on characterizing the geology and potential terrestrial sequestration options in the Southeast. It culminated in the development of action plans for small-scale geologic carbon sequestration field demonstrations.
SECARB currently is in its final year of a five-year Phase II Validation program (2005-2010). Phase II includes implementing the action plans developed in Phase I and conducting three small-scale and diverse field tests in four locations.
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) stacked formations along the Gulf Coast are a prime target area for geologic storage of CO2. Sequestration in these formations can help the United States reach national emissions reduction targets. SECARB's research estimates 31 billion tonnes of potential storage capacity in the region's depleted oil and natural gas fields. SECARB's Gulf Coast Stacked Storage Field Test, managed by the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, began injecting CO2 in July 2008 and continues to be monitored today. The goal of this project is to validate the storage capacity of the stacked formations. It was the first of the RCSP's Phase II program to attain an injection volume of 500,000 tonnes. The site is located in Denbury Resources, Incorporated's (DRI) Cranfield Oilfield near Natchez, Mississippi.
Coal seams are among the most attractive potential CO2 sinks occurring in the southeastern United States, where a prolific coal bed methane industry, which has produced more than 2.3 trillion standard cubic feet (Tscf) of natural gas, is approaching maturity. CO2 sequestration in unmineable coal seams can enhance coal bed methane production to help offset sequestration costs. An estimated 82.1 billion tonnes of potential storage capacity exists in the region's unmineable coal seams. There are two SECARB Phase II enhanced coal bed methane field tests. The first is managed by Virginia Tech, and CO2 injection of 1,000 tons was completed in February 2009. This test utilized an existing CNX Gas well located in Russell County, Virginia. The second is managed by the Geological Survey of Alabama, and El Paso Exploration and Production is donating a well to the SECARB team for this field test. The site is located near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and CO2 injection began on June 15, 2010.
Saline formations are the primary CO2 geologic storage options for the SECARB region because of the extensive saline formations that underlie many of the power plants in the region. SECARB's research estimated 1,440 billion tonnes of potential sequestration in saline formations in the region. Mississippi Power Company's Victor J. Daniel coal-fired power plant is the host site of SECARB's Saline Reservoir Field Test, which is managed by the Electric Power Research Institute. Injection operations were conducted from October 2-28, 2008.
SECARB began a ten-year Phase III program in October 2007, to deploy two large-volume CO2 geologic storage projects.
The first project, or "Early Test," complements work conducted by the SECARB team at Cranfield Oilfield (Phase II Gulf Coast Stacked Storage Project). For the Phase III Early Test project, the project team is taking advantage of ongoing CO2-EOR efforts by the field operator, DRI. SECARB's Phase III monitoring activities began on April 1, 2009, and the team continues to monitor the CO2 injection at a sustained rate of 1.5 million tonnes per year for a total of 18 months.
The second project, or "Anthropogenic Test," is a fully integrated CO2 capture, transportation, and geologic storage project. The CO2 will be captured at Alabama Power Company's Plant Barry, a coal-fired power generating facility located in Bucks, Alabama, and transported by pipeline, and sequestered within a saline formation at nearby Citronelle field operated by DRI. During the Anthropogenic Test, the SECARB team will inject approximately 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year for three years, with years of post-injection monitoring activities.
Please visit the official SECARB website
The SECARB Phase III Early Test was recognized on November 5, 2009, by DOE for furthering CCS technology and meeting G-8 goals for deployment of 20 similar projects by 2010. The "Early Test" is the fifth project worldwide to reach the CO2 injection volume of one million tonnes and the first in the United States.
"Phase III of the regional partnerships was an excellent program that will achieve significant results for carbon capture and sequestration both in the United States, Canada and internationally....the individual projects within Phase III will complement each other and together build a comprehensive and expansive research program, the size and scope of which is unique throughout the world."
- International Energy Agency Greenhouse R&D Programme Expert Review Panel
May 2008
6325 Amherst Court, Norcross, Georgia, 30092 | Tel: (770) 242-7712 | Fax: (770) 242-9956
