HLCP begins CO2 injection at North Dakota ethanol plant

Carbon dioxide (CO2) injection has begun at Harvestone Low Carbon Partners’ (HLCP’s) Blue Flint ethanol carbon capture and storage (CCS) project facility near Underwood, North Dakota.

The site is believed to be the first of its kind in the US to begin actively capturing and injecting CO2 after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022.

When fully operational, the Blue Flint ethanol plant produces more than 200,000 metric tonnes of CO2 a year, as a by-product of the fermentation process. 100% of its CO2 emissions come from the fermentation process and will permanently sequester around 600 metric tonnes of CO2 per day.

The CO2 will be stored around one mile below the surface in the Broom Creek formation.

HLCP is a portfolio company of Energy Capital Partners (EPC), an investor in critical infrastructure focused on electrification, decarbonisation, reliability, and sustainability. ECP will facilitate HLCP’s vision to develop renewable energy that benefits local communities.

Pete Labbat, Managing Partner at EPC, said the HLCP investment highlights ECP’s ability to identify innovative investment opportunities within the energy transition.

CCS is the process of capturing CO2 from a large stationary source, compressing the CO2 into a liquid and injecting it via a Class VI injection well deep underground for permanent geologic storage.

North Dakota was the first state to be granted primacy from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2018. Wyoming followed in 2020.