It has been agreed that five projects will be used to help establish test centres, with the intention of conducting cost-effective research. This will also present the opportunity to evaluate technologies which both capture carbon dioxide and convert this CO2 into products from utility and industrial sources or products which remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

These five projects will play a role in supporting the development of carbon dioxide capture, removal and finally converting test centres for cement manufacturing facilities and power plants.

Creating these test centres, especially creating them in a variety of sizes and ways which means they require a variety of feedstocks from different industries, helps in the process of establishing these sites and improving the efficacy and performance of ranges of carbon capture technologies. All of the projects involved in this programme will enable carbon management which is economical and environmentally sustainable.

The plan from the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois) outlines the conceptual design, business, technical and managerial structures for a test centre which will be dedicated to evaluating and accelerating carbon capture. This site will also focus on removal and conversion technologies within the cement industry.

Holcim US (Chicago, Illinois) has released plans around establishing a domestic Cement Carbon Management Innovation Center. This facility will be based in Maryland at its Hagerstown Cement Facility. The purpose of this facility will be to explore the feasibility of the testing centre location, as well as the business model, ownership structure and finally the technology partners.

The intention behind the plan from Southern Company Services, Inc. (Birmingham, Alabama), is to simultaneously maintain and operate the National Carbon Capture Center. This place is a comprehensive test facility which has the capacity to evaluate CO2 capture, removal and conversion technologies through the use of generating plant operating conditions.

A plan to enhance their existing carbon dioxide capture, removal and conversion test centre has been released by the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (Grand Forks, North Dakota). The purpose of this plan is to make it possible to rapidly and cost-effectively test a wider range of technologies with the ability to submit them to relevant power operating conditions.

Finally, the University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyoming) has outlined a plan to expand the current existing Wyoming Integrated Test Center’s capabilities in order to accommodate a larger and more varied range of carbon management technologies. Whilst they do this, the party plans to simulate emissions from natural gas as well as industrial facilities.

Taking all of these projects into consideration, it has been made clear that project funding will be subject to appropriations. Under the purview of FECM, DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), will be responsible for managing the selected projects.

Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Brad Crabtree, commented, “Carbon management technologies such as carbon capture can significantly reduce emissions from fossil energy use and key industrial processes, like cement production. By investing in test centres, we are helping reduce barriers to commercial scale deployment of carbon capture, conversion, and removal technologies that will ultimately help reduce pollution and create jobs.”