Virginia’s only cement plant is looking to advance the technology of storing carbon well below the earth’s surface.
With the help of Virginia Tech researchers and federal grant money, preliminary work is already underway. The Roanoke Cement Plant initially reached out to the university a couple years ago, wanting to know more about what’s called geologic carbon sequestration.
The ultimate goal – is keeping roughly fifty million metric tons out of the earth’s atmosphere, and digging miles down to see if the area is suitable to store carbon dioxide.
Virginia Tech's research team got a $9 million grant from the Department of Energy CarbonSAFE program, and $2.6 million from the cement company, based in Botetourt County.
But lead researcher and associate professor of geosciences Ryan Pollyea says the actual practice of sequestration in what’s called Project CARDINAL won’t take place for quite a while.
“(This) looks like anywhere from probably an eight to ten year research and development and construction period before anything kind of tangible, before a drop of CO2 would go underground," he explained. "There’s just a giant mountain of science and engineering to climb before you get there.”
Pollyea said the years ahead will include drilling a borehole, and taking a sample of the rocks for up to ten miles deep. That will determine the thickness of the cap rock, or a layer that seals the top of reservoirs and other geological formations.
“As a cement producer, Roanoke Cement Company recognizes that it’s a challenging thing to do," Pollyea said. "That's because of the CO2 sources of cement, both energy and the process of baking limestone to produce the clinker product." (or the solid material, essentially the backbone of cement production.)
A pre-feasibility study includes learning about conditions below the cement plant. Then there’s a construction phase for the structure that will eventually pump CO2.
Pollyea says there’s a lot to learn behind what it takes to make essential products, like cement and steel, and the carbon footprint they leave behind.
“It’s not just about the fossil fuels, it’s about the processes themselves," he said. "I think that’s a really important part of the narrative that surrounds why this type of technology can move the needle. It’s not a silver bullet, it’s not going to fix climate change, but it’s going to move the needle in a positive direction forward."
Project CARDINAL will test geologic conditions at the cement plant to store 1.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year for the next three decades – or the equivalent of taking more than 360-thousand cars off the road each year.
