This post also contains project updates from our various carbon management programs. We hope you’ll join us in Chattanooga to hear even more about the ongoing and upcoming projects listed below.

If you have any questions about our current or former carbon management projects (pictured below), please email us.

Project OASIS

The “Optimizing Alabama’s CO₂ Storage in Shelby County: Project OASIS” CarbonSAFE Phase II Project seeks to build on regional data sets that demonstrate that the subsurface within Shelby County, Alabama has the potential to store commercial volumes of CO₂ safely, permanently, and economically. Work on this project is conducted under the purview of the Southern States Energy Board (lead), Advanced Resources International, Inc., Alabama A&M University, Auburn University, Crescent Resource Innovation, Oklahoma State University, Southern Company and Alabama Power Company, Westervelt, and Baker Hughes.

During the second quarter of 2024, SSEB staff worked with Alabama A&M University, ARI, and Southern Company to design and hold an engagement event with Alabama A&M University students at the National Carbon Capture Center on April 19, 2024. The event included a broad overview of carbon capture and storage as well as a general update on the status of Project OASIS. Participants met with Plant Gaston staff and toured the National Carbon Capture Center as part of this event.

Project Longleaf

The Longleaf CCS Project seeks to significantly reduce the carbon emissions of South Alabama through the development of a storage hub near Bucks, Alabama. Project Longleaf is a public-private partnership with site host and Project Developer, Tenaska. The Project Team includes Advanced Resources International, Crescent Resource Innovation, ENTECH Strategies, the Geological Survey of Alabama, the University of South Alabama, and Williams.

Tenaska, in partnership with ARI, Baker Hughes, and Paragon Geophysical Services, Inc. (vendor to Baker Hughes) finalized the routes for the July/August 2024 seismic survey. Additionally, SSEB and Tenaska personnel continued to engage with stakeholders throughout Mobile County. This included in-person and virtual discussions with a variety of stakeholders. Notable new stakeholders engaged include the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, the National Estuary Program, the Nature Conservancy, and neighbors in the vicinity of the project location.

Foreman Cement Plant Carbon Capture and Storage FEED

The Foreman Cement Plant Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) FEED Project seeks to develop a CCS integrated solution to support reduction of CO₂ emissions associated with cement manufacturing and to improve the sustainability of the Ash Grove Foreman Cement Plant in Foreman, Arkansas. To accomplish this, the Project Team will execute and complete front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies for an integrated CCS system.

This will include all necessary infrastructure required for a fully integrated carbon capture, transportation, and storage project. As part of the FEED study, the Project Team will consider Air Liquide’s Cryocap^TM technology as the basis for the post-combustion CO₂ capture and processing system. In parallel, the Project Team will execute a stratigraphic test well to support the development of its Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI Permit Application for submission to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Additionally, the Project Team will submit a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Environmental Information Volume based on the integrated CO₂ capture, transportation, and storage project to identify all potential environmental impacts of a commercial project.

The project issued a request for proposals (RFPs) for a CO₂ Offtake Partner, and an Engineering , Procurement , and Construction (EPC) Partner to assist with the Balance of Plant engineering design. Vault 44.01 was ultimately selected as the CO₂ Offtake Partner and will be joining the Project Team as a subrecipient. Vault 44.01 will lead the Pipeline FEED Study, the Storage Field Development Plan, and work with the Project Team to develop a robust community engagement strategy. Sargent & Lundy were selected as the EPC partner and will participate in the project as a vendor.

The Project Team anticipates completion of the Baseline Verification process in late Q3/early Q4. This remains the primary focus of the current phase and will dictate advancement into phase 2.

DAC RECO₂UP

In early 2021, SSEB launched a project known as the Direct Air Capture Recovery of Energy for CCUS Partnership (DAC RECO₂UP). The project met or exceeded all metrics and successfully concluded on July 31, 2024.

The DAC RECO₂UP project was the first direct air capture (DAC) system installed at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama. The NCCC provided a commercially relevant environment in which to assess the DAC solid-amine CO₂ adsorption-desorption contactor technology. Five testing campaigns were completed with an experimental period of over 3,300 hours, allowing the project team to obtain a sizable and varied database. The in-field operational data was used to develop a pre-screening techno-economic analysis, conduct a life cycle analysis, and assess risk. 

The project supports DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s goal to decrease the cost of CO₂ capture through the testing of existing DAC materials in integrated field units that produce a concentrated CO₂ stream of at least 95% purity.

Recoverable energy is readily available from many commercial locations where DAC can be deployed; therefore, advancing the fidelity of energy recovery to directly reduce the cost of DAC was a key project objective. In addition, many commercial facilities have low-concentration CO₂ vents that are uneconomical to treat alone but could provide more efficient mass and thermal transport to DAC systems with integrated energy recovery and flexible CO₂ treatment capabilities.

Results of the project addressed critical technical barriers and demonstrated improved capital and operating costs of DAC technology while validating commercial relevance of cost and product quality/need.

The project team consists of SSEB, Aircapture, Amy Landis, Ph.D. at Colorado School of Mines, Synapse Development Group, Global Thermostat, Crescent Resource Innovation, and Southern Company. This work was completed in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC).

SECARB-USA

The “Southeast Regional CO₂ Utilization and Storage Acceleration Partnership” (SECARB-USA) project supports the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy’s mission to help the United States meet its need for secure, affordable, and environmentally sound fossil energy supplies by utilizing the advancements made by the current Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative to continue to identify and address knowledge gaps. The primary objective of the project is to identify and address regional onshore storage and transport challenges facing commercial deployment of CO₂ capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies.

SSEB is the award recipient. The project team is composed of: Advanced Resources International, Inc., Auburn University, the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, Gerald R Hill Ph.D. Inc (dba), Crescent Resource Innovation, Environmental Defense Fund, Geological Survey of Alabama, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oklahoma State University, SAS Institute, Inc, and Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The Project Team coordinates and collaborates closely with a broad industry network.

SSEB personnel continued to investigate opportunities to deploy text analytics, natural language processing, and large language models to evaluate sentiment in support of focused and informed messaging and engagement. In addition to the analysis of media coverage being explored by students at Oklahoma State University, further work has focused on individual projects, such as California Resource Corporation’s Carbon TerraVault Kern County Class VI permit application and the specific actions taken by the project developer while designing the project. By evaluating sentiment and specific actions taken by the developer, emerging or most impactful practices may be identified. Importantly, these initiatives were described to US EPA in detail on April 3, 2024, to advocate for informed outreach initiatives. On June 19, 2024, SSEB and Oklahoma State University’s Dr. Jack Pashin prepared for and held a meeting with Oklahoma’s Secretary of Energy and Environment, Kenley McQueen, in Oklahoma City, OK. The meeting also included Deputy Secretary of Energy, Scott Mason IV, and Deputy Secretary of Environment, Victoria Tran. The discussion was focused on ongoing CCS initiatives within the state and opportunities to support the state’s goals of advancing CCS commercialization.

Our Work. Your Future.

For more than two decades, the Southern States Energy Board has worked to remove the boundaries surrounding carbon capture and storage development with the goal of providing budgetary boosts for sustainable industrial practices and municipal improvements across the Southeast.

The Board continues to explore new projects and avenues for the successful deployment of CCUS technology across our membership region. Even more carbon management projects are on the horizon. Ensure you’re signed up for our mailing list to receive all future updates on our current projects and upcoming events.