US: The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has announced US$101m in funding for five projects to establish carbon capture, removal, and conversion test centres for cement plants and power facilities. The test centres aim to cost-effectively research and evaluate technologies to capture and convert CO₂ into products from utility and industrial sources, or by removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The initiative aims to reduce CO₂ emissions, promote sustainable technologies and create job opportunities.
Notable projects include the University of Illinois in Urbana, which plans to design a test centre to evaluate carbon management technologies for the cement industry, and Holcim US, which intends to establish a Cement Carbon Management Innovation Centre at its Hagerstown facility in Maryland.
Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, said “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.”
