U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today the selections of six projects that aim to find ways of converting captured carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial sources into useful products such as fuel, plastics, cement, and fertilizers. These projects were funded with $106 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and matched with $156 million in private cost-share.

 

The projects announced today were initially selected for a first phase funding in October 2009 as part of a $1.4 billion effort to capture CO2 from industrial sources for storage or beneficial use. Over the succeeding months, the project teams have performed experiments on innovative concepts and produced preliminary designs for pilot plants to study the feasibility of capturing and using CO2 exhausted from industrial processes. The selected projects now enter a second phase in which researchers design, construct, and operate their innovations at pilot-scale and evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of applying them commercially. 

 

The projects selected to demonstrate the beneficial use of CO2 include:

 

Alcoa Center, PA

DOE Share: $11,999,359

 

Ithaca, N.Y.

DOE Share: $18,417,989

 

Touchstone Research Laboratory Ltd.

Triadelphia, W. Va.

DOE Share: $6,239,542

 

Highland Heights, Ohio

DOE Share: $24,243,509

 

Austin, Texas

DOE Share: $25,000,000

 

Los Gatos, Calif.

DOE Share: $19,895,553)

 

For additional project details, please visit the Department of Energy's website at http://www.energy.gov/news/9247.htm or see the attached press release.