SK E&S joins world's largest CCS project in the U.S.

[Source: SK E&S Co.]

SK E&S Co., energy firm under South Korean SK Group, will invest $110 million in a decarbonization business platform in the United States to back a private project that will collect and store up to 12 million tons of carbon dioxide annually for energy upcycling.

SK E&S announced on Tuesday that it will invest $110 million in Summit Carbon Solutions for about 10 percent stake. Summit Carbon Solutions is an entity set up by U.S. agricultural investment company Summit Agricultural Group to lower greenhouse gas emissions with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

The Korean company would be joining Summit Agricultural Group, Continental Resources, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the U.S., and Texas Pacific Group (TPG), a global private equity firm, in what would be the world’s largest CCS project.

Summit Carbon Solutions-led CCS project will capture and store up to 12 million tons of carbon dioxide generated at 32 corn ethanol production facilities located across five states in the Midwest in the United States. The carbon dioxide collected at each plant will then be transported through a 3,200-kilometer pipeline to an underground storage site in North Dakota.

The construction of the carbon dioxide storage facility and the pipeline will begin in the first half of 2023 for commercial operation in the second half of 2024.

Demand for the CCS project is expected to continuously increase as there is a large concentration of plants such as ammonia production bases in the Midwest that release carbon dioxide.

“CCS is an important technology that can directly reduce greenhouse gases produced from various energy sources such as natural gas and biofuel,” said Yu Jeong-joon, the Vice Chairman of SK E&S. SK E&S will continue to actively participate in low carbon energy projects to contribute to America’s 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets, he added.

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