Would add 27 miles in Greene County, 31 in Guthrie County
by Jared Strong, Iowa Capital Dispatch
March 5, 2024
Summit Carbon Solutions plans to expand its carbon dioxide pipeline footprint in Iowa by about 50% — or about 340 miles — to connect to more ethanol plants, according to new regulatory filings.
The company is awaiting approval from the Iowa Utilities Board for its initial proposal to lay the backbone of its pipeline system. That plan includes about 690 miles of pipe in Iowa that would connect to a dozen ethanol plants to transport their captured carbon dioxide to North Dakota for underground storage.
The scope of the company’s project in Iowa has expanded considerably in recent weeks and is the result of another company, Navigator CO2, abandoning its plans for a similar system. Two large ethanol producers — POET and Valero — that had initially agreed to be part of Navigator’s project have since signed with Summit.
That has resulted in Summit more than doubling its number of ethanol plant partners in Iowa to a total of 30. There are 42 in the state.
“I view our project as representing a meaningful shift in agriculture to lower the carbon intensity of biofuel products,” Summit CEO Lee Blank said Monday when the company announced Valero’s participation.
Also on Monday, the company indicated it would file for 14 more hazardous liquid pipeline permits in Iowa to connect to the POET and Valero facilities, including one that is in South Dakota. A review of the expansion routes filed with the IUB shows that they will include about 340 miles of new pipe in 22 counties.
It’s possible for Summit to add even more ethanol plants to its proposed pipeline network, said Sabrina Zenor, a Summit spokesperson. The project now includes 57 ethanol producers in five states and is expected to transport more than 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
The system has a total capacity of about 18 million metric tons, Zenor said.
Republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
