Category: Integrated CCUS Initiative

Today’s energy economy is building Colorado’s zero-carbon future 7/26/2023

Today’s energy economy is building Colorado’s zero-carbon future

Payne Institute Program Managers Anna Littlefield, Simon Lomax, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the transition to a zero-carbon economy may look like a case of “out with the old, in with the new.” Dig deeper and the reality is much different, however.   Many of the skills, technologies and scientific research that support the energy sources we use today are also essential for developing the new energy sources of tomorrow.  July 26, 2023.

GLOBAL ENERGY FUTURE INITIATIVE BRINGS INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE TABLE 6/9/2023

GLOBAL ENERGY FUTURE INITIATIVE BRINGS INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE TABLE

Mines Global Energy Future Initiative (GEFI) is creating partnerships to forge solutions for society’s greatest energy challenges. But creating effective partnerships that address many facets of a problem is tricky. Mines has expertise across the gamut of disciplines required to tackle these problems and a new framework for the interdisciplinary research needed to spark innovation and attract external partners. Mines has put together a powerhouse list of energy-related experts and our connections to industry and other partners to build a structure for unprecedented collaboration.  June 9, 2023.  

Analyzing a deadly confrontation to understand the roots of conflict in artisanal and small-scale mining: A case study from Arequipa, Peru 6/7/2023

Analyzing a deadly confrontation to understand the roots of conflict in artisanal and small-scale mining: A case study from Arequipa, Peru

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone, Faculty Fellow Nicole M. Smith, Eliseo Zeballos Zeballos, Rolando Quispe Aquino, Ubaldo Tapia Huamaní, Jerónimo Miguel Gutiérrez Soncco, Guido Salas, Zacarias Madariaga Coaquira, Jose Herrera Bedoya write about how conflicts around large-scale mining are common and widely researched, but artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) features sparingly in the mining conflict literature, despite the prevalence of ASM conflicts. This paper examines ASM conflicts, focusing on a central case study from Arequipa, Peru, where violence between rival ASM groups and a mining company resulted in 15 deaths between 2020 and 2022. June 7, 2023.

Feds allot $33 million to study carbon capture and storage in Pueblo region 5/22/2023

Feds allot $33 million to study carbon capture and storage in Pueblo region

Mines Global Energy Future Integrated CCUS Initiative Director Manika Prasad is leading the team from the Colorado School of Mines, the Los Alamos National Library and a private company, Carbon America, that were recently awarded a $32.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study carbon capture and storage in the Pueblo area.  May 22, 2023.

Colorado School of Mines and Carbon America awarded $32.6M from U.S. Department of Energy CarbonSAFE Initiative 5/19/2023

Colorado School of Mines and Carbon America awarded $32.6M from U.S. Department of Energy CarbonSAFE Initiative

Mines Director of Global Energy Future Initiative – Integrated CCUS Initiative Manika Prasad is part of a team of Mines researchers that received funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the development of a regional CO2 storage hub in concert with local stakeholders. Colorado School of Mines, Carbon America and Los Alamos National Laboratory have been awarded $32.6 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative to advance the development of a potential carbon storage hub for the Pueblo, Colorado area.  May 19, 2023.

Colorado gets $32 million to create carbon-stuffing hub underground at Pueblo 5/18/2023

Colorado gets $32 million to create carbon-stuffing hub underground at Pueblo

The Colorado School of Mines Global Energy Future Integrated CCUS Initiative received $32 million from the federal Department of Energy to study and develop a carbon sequestration hub in southern Colorado, considered a key to meeting greenhouse gas reduction goals in coming years.  The hub will be located in the Pueblo area, where massive carbon emissions from two power plants and cement kiln, among other major carbon producers, may need to be stuffed underground to meet state and U.S. climate change targets. The large DOE grant gives School of Mines and partners — including Los Alamos National Laboratory — financing to define and drill test sites, and set the boundaries for a carbon sink in the Lyons Sandstone formation thousands of feet beneath Pueblo County.  May 18, 2023.  

Ambitious EPA Rules to Face Stark Permitting Reality 5/17/2023

Ambitious EPA Rules to Face Stark Permitting Reality

Payne Institute Program Manager’s Anna Littlefield and Brad Handler, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how in early May EPA proposed major new carbon emissions standards for coal and many gas-fired electric power plants. Prominent among the options is carbon capture and storage (CCS)—this represents a unique and significant possibility for the technology. The proposal highlights the pressing need to accelerate permitting of CO2 pipelines and injection wells.  May 17, 2023.

Voluntary carbon markets’ growth challenges 3/31/2023

Voluntary carbon markets’ growth challenges

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler writes about how the 20th anniversary of the US’ biggest carbon conference, North America Carbon World, was held last week and conference participants voiced concerns over public perception and difficulties integrating carbon instruments into broad investment portfolios.  March 31, 2023. 

Carbon capture utilization and storage in review: Sociotechnical implications for a carbon reliant world 3/2/2023

Carbon capture utilization and storage in review: Sociotechnical implications for a carbon reliant world

Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, Director Morgan Bazilian, CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield, student researchers Hope McLaughlin, Maia Menefee, Austin Kinzer, Tobias Hull, along with Benjamin K.Sovacool, and Jinsoo Kim write about how the decarbonization of industry and industrial systems is a pressing challenge given the relative lack of low-carbon options available for “hard to decarbonize” sectors such as steelmaking, cement manufacturing, and chemical production. This review takes a systematic and sociotechnical perspective to examine how CCUS can support industrial decarbonization and relevant associated technical, economic, and social factors.  March 2, 2023.

DEVELOPING HYDROGEN AND CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE PROJECTS IN THE STATE OF COLORADO 12/9/2022

Developing Hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage Projects in the State of Colorado

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield and student researcher Chiang Cheng Siew write about how over the past two years, both the hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) industries have gained momentum in the US. Project development in these industries has been rapidly accelerating with the growing financial incentives from policymakers for the commercial deployment of these projects. The signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in November of 2021 marked the US Department of Energy’s largest single investment in carbon management, along with significant investments funding clean hydrogen development.  December 9, 2022.