Battelle-led group nixes plans for carbon-capture project
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/08/17/daily35.html?t=printableBusiness First of Columbus - by Matt Burns Friday, August 21, 2009
A federal partnership led by Battelle of Columbus has scrapped plans to use an ethanol plant near Dayton to test carbon emissions-cutting technology.
Battelle spokeswoman Katy Delaney confirmed Friday that the more than 30-organization Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership is no longer considering a plant near Greenville, about 100 miles west of Columbus, for a proposed $93 million project that involves capturing CO2 from its source and injecting it below ground. The process, a key development front for Battelle, cuts emissions by keeping some of the gas out of the atmosphere.
Delaney said the Greenville project, which the federal government considered the group’s principal effort, was scrapped because of “business considerations” and declined to elaborate. The partnership continues to move forward on other proposed projects unrelated to the Greenville-area plant, Delaney said.
The proposed Greenville project had $61 million in federal funding set aside for the Midwest partnership, formed in 2003 and one of seven nationwide. Other organizations involved in the partnership include Columbus-based American Electric Power Company Inc. (NYSE:AEP) and American Municipal Power Inc. along with a number of universities across several states, including Ohio State University, according to information from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.
