They will need approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, but two ethanol companies hope to construct the first carbon sequestration sites in the state of Kansas.
Carbon sequestration involves the creation of deep underground wells where carbon dioxide emissions are pumped and removed from the atmosphere. It’s a controversial process that is favored by those who contend it will help clean the air we breathe but is fought by some environmental groups.
PureField Ingredients, which operates an ethanol and wheat protein plant in Russell is one of the firms. It’s proposing a well to be drilled six miles away from the plant located at the east side of the city that sits along Interstate 70 in the west central part of Kansas.
A report by KCUR public radio indicates the plant wants to capture an estimated 150,000 metric tonas of carbon a year.
The second application is from Pratt Energy which operates an ethanol plant in Pratt, located in south central Kansas. It won’t be up to the state of Kansas to decide if the two requests should be approved. That’s up to the EPA.
