Valero tries again on carbon capture
Deal with Summit comes after pipeline project scrapped
San Antonio’s Valero Energy Corp. is taking another shot at working with a partner to create a carbon-capture pipeline in the Midwest.
Summit Carbon Solutions, a spinoff of Iowa-based Summit Agricultural Group, said Monday that eight of Valero’s ethanol plants in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota are participating in its $8 billion 2,500-mile pipeline. The project to store carbon emissions from the corn ethanol industry underground comes after Navigator CO2, which attempted a similar project, scrapped its efforts with Valero in October.
At that time, Valero said it still saw carbon capture as a strategic opportunity and would continue to evaluate other projects.
“I am excited to welcome one of the premier energy companies in the world into our project, bringing in a new era where agricultural innovation and energy market expansion go hand in hand,” Summit founder Bruce Rastetter said in a statement. “By integrating Valero’s facilities into this project, we will make major strides in providing more than a billion gallons of low-carbon fuels to a marketplace hungry for the product. This project ensures the agriculture and biofuels industries will remain dynamic and competitive, meeting the needs of today while preparing for the opportunities of tomorrow.”
Valero did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Summit said the refiner’s eight plants will add 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol and result in the capture of 3.1 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually. The addition brings Summit’s project total to 57 ethanol production facilities across the upper Midwest from which the company says it will store more than 16 million metric tons of carbon a year.
Valero is the world’s secondlargest ethanol producer. The
largest, South Dakota’s POET, has already said it will join Summit’s project.
Navigator announced its pipeline efforts in 2021 with Valero and Blackrock, a New York investment fund. But Navigator
dropped the project, citing “unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa.”
While supporters say the pipelines are vital to American agriculture and reducing emissions, critics have voiced concerns about the safety of pipelines and the impacts on farmland.
Summit will apply to the Iowa Utilities Board for permits to connect the Valero and POET ethanol plants to its pipeline, according the Des Moines Register. It already has an initial application, on which the board is expected to make a decision soon, according to the newspaper.