By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
On March 25, Lee Blank, CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions, shared information related to the company’s plans to build a pipeline to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to a storage location underground in North Dakota.
Carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS) is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) formed during power generation and industrial processes and storing it so that it is not emitted into the atmosphere.
Blank shared an overview of the project.
“It’s really three projects in one,” said Blank. “The front of the project is capture, where we’re capturing CO2 off the ethanol industry, and now 57 ethanol plants have signed with us across the entire system… Then there’s a transport piece, which is the piece that you probably hear most about. That’s the pipeline… The third piece is the sequestration piece, and that’s in North Dakota, where we’ll be sequestering the CO2 under the cap rock.”
One significant challenge in such a project, according to Blank, is picking the right route for the pipeline. He explained that the proposed route is picked by first using a software system called Pivot, which considers geographic and demographic and other data to determine a proposed route. The final route is then determined through discussions with the applicable landowners. Because of this, Blank said the route can change literally thousands of times.
“We’ve worked really hard to find ways to accommodate that landowner, because we want to be a good partner and a good neighbor,” said Blank.
Some details on the expected timeline were shared as well.
“We anticipate actual operations in 2026, probably the second half of the year,” Blank said.
This timeline allows for public information and individual meetings.
“We’ll have to go through public meetings…before we can actually be addressing the landowner,” Blank said. “We haven’t exactly set the time for those meetings. We believe they’ll be in June and early July.”
More information is available at https://summitcarbonsolutions.com.