DOE Releases Opportunities for Nearly $5 Billion in Carbon Capture Technologies

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 8, 2022

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced nearly $4.9 billion in funding opportunities that aim to demonstrate and deploy carbon capture systems, as well as carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure.

The funding, which derives from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is designed to support three programs.

The Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, which is being managed by the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), provides up to $2.25 billion to support the development of new and expanded large-scale, commercial carbon dioxide (CO2) storage projects with capacities to store 50 or more million metric tons of CO2, along with associated CO2 transport infrastructure. Projects should focus on detailed site characterization, permitting, and construction stages of project development under CarbonSAFE.

The Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program, being managed by the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) in partnership with FECM, will provide up to $2.54 billion to develop six integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage demonstration projects that can be replicated and deployed at fossil energy power plants and major industrial sources of CO2, such as cement, pulp and paper, iron and steel, and certain types of chemical production facilities. The funding opportunity announcement (FOA) provides up to $189 million for up to 20 integrated front-end engineering design studies, with a second FOA expected later this year to support detailed design, construction, and operation of carbon capture projects, as well as transport and storage of the captured CO2.

The Carbon Dioxide Transport Engineering and Design initiative, being managed by FECM, will provide up to $100 million to design regional CO2 pipeline networks to safely transport captured CO2 from key sources to centralized locations. Projects should focus on carbon transport costs, transport network configurations, and technical and commercial considerations that support broad efforts to develop and deploy carbon capture, conversion, and storage at commercial scale. 

DOE FOAs require that applicants submit Community Benefits Plans detailing their commitments to community and labor engagement, quality job creation, diversity and equity, and implementation of the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative.