ADM, a global leader in human and animal nutrition and the world’s premier agricultural origination and processing company, and the University of Illinois recently announced the successful completion of the Illinois Basin – Decatur Project (IBDP), a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project designed to evaluate and test the technology at commercial scale. This is one of two CCS projects located adjacent to ADM’s corn processing plant in Decatur, Illinois.
The first-of-its-kind project was primarily funded through the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) by the U.S. Department of Energy – National Energy Technology Laboratory with the goal to confirm the ability of the Mt. Simon Sandstone to accept and store one million metric tons of carbon dioxide over a period of three years, the equivalent of annual emissions from about 1.2 million passenger cars according to EPA calculations. Working together through the MGSC, the Illinois State Geological Survey at the University of Illinois designed, implemented, and monitored the project and ADM was the host and operator.
In 2020, the MGSC teamed up with the Midwest Region Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) to form the Midwest Regional Carbon Initiative to build off the foundation established by these regional partnerships to move a 20-state region towards readiness and deployment of commercial CCUS.
Read more about the ADM/University of Illinois project here.