The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to provide $2.6 billion of funding for two programs supporting carbon capture, transport, and storage projects aimed at helping to decarbonize power generation and heavy industry sectors.

The new funding is being made available under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocates approximately $6.5 billion over five years in funding to carbon management projects and initiatives, including carbon sequestration and transport infrastructure, Direct Air Capture, and carbon utilization programs.

The funding includes $2.54 billion for the Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program and $100 million for the Carbon Dioxide Transport/Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) Program.

The Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program will concentrate on integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage technologies and infrastructure that can be replicated and implemented at fossil energy power plants and major industrial sources of CO2, including cement pulp and paper, iron and steel, and certain types of chemical production facilities.

The Carbon Dioxide Transport/FEED Program will design regional CO2 pipeline systems to transport CO2 from key sources to centralized locations. According to the DOE, projects will support the country’s efforts to develop and deploy carbon capture and CO2 removal technologies, carbon conversion, and storage at a commercial scale.  

In addition to the new programs, the DOE stated that its Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has also launched two new tools to help with the advancement of carbon management technologies in the U.S, including a Carbon Matchmaker Tool, which is an online information source, as well as a Carbon Management Interactive Diagram, an online tool that highlights carbon management programs in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said:

“To meet President Biden’s climate goals, we have to rapidly decarbonize our power generation and heavy industries – such as steel production – that are essential to the clean energy transition. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enables DOE to invest in carbon capture, conversion and storage technologies that play essential roles in the development and deployment of clean energy.”