SALEM, Ohio — A private energy company from Nebraska will be leasing pore space from landowners in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for three tri-state area carbon capture and sequestration hubs.
Carbon capture and sequestration, also known as CCS, is the process of capturing and injecting carbon emissions into the ground to reduce emissions. Tenaska, the company developing the projects, has already acquired many of the pore space and above-ground rights needed for the project, but they are looking for more.
Pore space leasing refers to the leasing of underground geological formations where liquefied carbon will be injected for long-term storage. The company anticipates increased economic benefits for communities, but environmental advocates suggest the deal may be too good to be true.
What are the hubs and where will they be?
The tri-state area hubs will consist of three hubs with one in each state. The Tri-State CCS Buckeye (Ohio) hub will consist of a total of 12 wells: three wells in Carroll County, Ohio; six wells in Jefferson County, Ohio, and three wells in Harrison County, Ohio.
The Tri-State CCS Oak Grove (Pennsylvania) hub will have a total of three wells located in Washington County, Pennsylvania. The Tri-State CCS Redbud (West Virginia) hub will have a total of seven wells: three in Hancock County, West Virginia and four wells in Marshall County, West Virginia.
Scott Murray, manager of project development for Tenaska’s Tri-State Hub, says the locations were identified based on their geological suitability for CCS, with help from local experts, geologists and universities.
“Each of those areas have rock formations that we’re evaluating for storage with good ceiling cap rock and then also a good local customer base in the area that would be able to provide carbon dioxide for those projects,” Murray said.
Tenaska wants to acquire roughly 24 above-ground and pore space rights from landowners in these regions.
According to an economic impact study by West Virginia University, the hubs will bring in $1.1 billion during the construction phase and employ 1,900 individuals. Once online, it will employ 53 individuals and provide $1.8 million in taxes to state and local governments.
Tenaska’s target storage of carbon is 5 million tons per year. Besides reducing carbon emissions, the hub is anticipated to help oil and gas companies produce more value out of their services.
“We look at it as a business solution for a lot of these local manufacturers, local industrial facilities that have a lot of environmental regulations, (that are) looking at climate mandates,” said Scott Murray, manager of project development for Tenaska’s Tr-State Hub. “A lot of these local manufacturers (and) providers have to shut down unless they have this solution available.”
The permitting process is lengthy and Tenaska doesn’t expect the projects to come online until 2029 or 2030. Despite the similarities, Tenaska’s project is not affiliated with the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, ARCH 2, which will be in the same region. However, Murray said they could be a customer.
Tenaska recently opened offices in Cadiz, Ohio, 108 S. Main St., Cadiz, Ohio, and in Weirton, West Virginia, 210 Three Springs Drive, Suite #2, Weirton, West Virginia, and plan on opening a third office in Pennsylvania for community members to use as a resource.
Concerns
Appalachia is seen as an ideal spot for CCS because of its abundant natural gas reserves and operations. However, many environmental advocates state CCS, also known as Class VI wells, has never been successful practiced before.
According to U.S. EPA data, there are only eight active Class VI wells in the United States, most of which are in North Dakota. Of the eight active wells, only two wells are in the injection phase. No Class VI wells exist in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Murray says it’s a growing technology, but many safeguards are in place to ensure the process of CCS is done safely, including computer modeling before and during operations to verify the rock is suitable for carbon storage. If there’s a leak, he says they will be able to detect it.
CCS projects are expected to capture 90% of carbon emissions. However, a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a non-profit international think tank, suggests out of 16 CCS sites analyzed, no existing project has captured more than 80% of carbon.
Additionally, Sean O’Leary, senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, states the economic benefits may also not be as good as projected.
According to O’Leary, in August 2023 Mountaineer GigaSystem, LLC, a clean hydrogen facility operating in the same region, offered the state of West Virginia a royalty of $3.35 per metric ton to sequester carbon in Mason County. Tenaska’s proposed lease rate in Washington County, Pennsylvania, is $1.50 per metric ton, two times less than what Mountaineer GigaSystem offered.
Tenaska said this is not an accurate description of their landowner compensation under lease agreements and that payment structure varies.
Correction: Updated information was added to this story on Aug. 27 at 2:02 p.m. to ensure the most accurate information was present.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
The new carbon capture hubs could boost local economies, but environmental concerns over Class VI wells remain. It’ll be interesting to see if CCS technology lives up to expectations. Will the benefits outweigh the risks?