Carbon storage projects hit a hurdle: Corroding steel

By Annie Snider, Ben Lefebvre | 10/09/2024 06:35 AM EDT

EPA has concluded that dozens of planned projects contain dangerous design flaws — a discovery that may slow the rollout of a technology central to the Biden administration’s plans to confront climate change.

Carbon capture technology is a crucial component of the Biden administration's plans to sharply curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

Carbon capture and sequestration technology is a crucial component of President Joe Biden's plans to sharply curb emissions of greenhouse gases. John Minchillo/AP

A leak at the country’s first commercial carbon dioxide sequestration project was likely caused by corrosion of the steel used in the well, a finding by federal regulators that poses a significant risk to dozens other projects around the country planning to use the same type of metal.

The steel, 13 Chrome, has been used for decades in oil and gas wells, but it appears to be vulnerable to corrosion when exposed to the liquids in carbon sequestration wells. Using an alternate material would likely be more expensive and could delay many of the projects that the agricultural and energy industries are hoping to deploy to access the federal tax credits and address the pollution driving climate change.

Carbon sequestration technology, which typically injects climate-warming carbon dioxide into deep underground saline aquifers, is a nascent technique that the Biden administration has hoped will offer polluting industries a viable path to reducing their impact on the climate. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act includes billions of dollars in incentives for carbon capture and sequestration as part of its effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions sharply.

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Both EPA and the well’s owner, Archer-Daniels-Midland, have pointed to the corrosion of the 13 Chrome stainless steel used at the Decatur, Illinois, facility for a leak in a monitoring well that allowed liquid carbon dioxide to escape from the containment reservoir. The company reported a second leak on a separate monitoring well to EPA last week and is running additional tests to shed light on what might have caused it.

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