Local Organizations Advance Clean Energy Technologies – Univenture and OSU Receive $11M in DOE Grants

Three organizations in Central Ohio have either received funding or announced milestones this week that will help advance the state-of-the-art in clean energy technologies.  

The US Department of Energy announced that both OSU and Marysville-based startup Univenture, Inc. will receive funding through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-e)  

Univenture received $5.99 million to fund a system that can dewater and dry algae which would improve the economic fundamentals of algae-based biofuel production.  Univenture is a media packaging company whose core products are made of 100 percent polypropylene which is manufactured from clean technologies.

OSU chemical and biomolecular researchers, led by engineering professor L.S. Fan, will receive $5 million for a project that will convert coal or biomass material into electricity while capturing the carbon dioxide emitted during the process.  

This nearly $11 million in ARPA-e funds are the first to be funded through the program which is receiving $400 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Also this week Battelle, which leads the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP), announced results of its recent Phase II validation demonstration for underground carbon capture and sequestration.  In September, as part of a short-term test, 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) were injected into the ground at Duke Energy’s East Bend power station near Rabbit Hash, KY.  

The CO2 was injected into the Mt. Simon Sandstone, a geologic deep saline formation that’s widespread under much of the Midwest. Based on the geological structure and prediction regarding the injectivity potential of the site, the Mt. Simon Sandstone is believed to have large CO2 storage potential.  

The results of this Phase II validation demonstration will be incorporated into the MRCSP’s regional maps and computer simulations to advance the understanding of CO2 storage potential in the Mt. Simon Sandstone.  The collection of water quality data from about 11 shallow groundwater wells on the site will continue for the next two years to confirm that the CO2 does not migrate into drinking water supplies.  

“We are pleased that this demonstration was successful and believe that carbon capture and storage technology will be an important component for the future operation of our coal-fired generating stations,” says Julie Janson, president of Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky.  

The Kentucky test follows two other MRCSP injection tests that have taken place in the region.  One at the R.E. Burger Power Plant in Shadyside, OH and one near Gaylord MI.  At the Michigan injection site, over 60,000 tones of CO2 were safely injected into a deep saline formation called the Bass Islands Dolomite.  

For more on the ARPA-e grants, see the story in Business First

For more on the carbon capture and sequestration Phase II demonstration, see the release from Battelle.