Senator Burris Announces Recovery Act Funding for Illinois for Carbon Capture Research and Development

Funds Will Support Programs at the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University

September 16, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Roland W. Burris today announced that American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds from the Department of Energy will be allocated to the University of Illinois in Champaign, and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. This investment from the Recovery Act will advance carbon capture and storage research and development in Illinois and spark job creation. The funds are being directed as follows:

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· University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: $4,803,000 to evaluate the carbon storage potential of the Cambro-Ordovician Strata of the Illinois and Michigan Basins which includes most of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan. A best practices manual for site characterization to be created during the project will help reduce storage risk by recording the uncertainties related to fracturing, injectivity, and geochemical interactions for these specific formations.

· University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: $299,337 for a project that combines a research and teaching strategy to provide cross-disciplinary training opportunities in geology and geomicrobiology in the Department of Geology and the Institute of Genomic Biology at the university in the rising field of carbon capture and storage. Both graduate and undergraduate students will participate and be trained in this project.

· Southern Illinois University: $300,000 for a project that proposes experiments to assess the structural behavior of the Illinois Basin’s organic rocks under extreme temporary conditions and to ascertain whether the stresses will overcome the adsorption forces holding CO2 in place. Six specific tasks are proposed to evaluate the structural and mechanical behavior of organic rocks under static, hydrostatic, and extreme dynamic stresses. Both graduate and undergraduate students will partake and be trained in this project.

Senator Burris and the Democratic-led Congress passed the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that was signed into law by President Obama in February.

“I am pleased that vital Recovery Act funds are being directed to the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University for these important carbon capture and storage activities.” said Senator Burris. “This investment from the Recovery Act will ensure that the U.S. is active in battling climate change while creating much need green jobs throughout the country”

Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced more than $62 million in Recovery Act funding for carbon capture and storage research and development projects across the United States.

A total of $49.75 million will be utilized to conduct site characterization studies of promising geological formations for carbon dioxide storage. These 11 projects announced today will increase the understanding of the potential for these formations to safely and permanently store carbon dioxide.

Another $12.7 million will be used to fund geologic sequestration training and research projects. These 43 projects announced today will afford training opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students to produce the skills required or applying and deploying carbon capture and storage technologies.

Source: Senator Roland W. Burris