Power Generation

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Southwest Regional Partnership (SWP) have started injecting CO₂ into a large coalbed at the San Juan Basin near Navajo City, New Mexico.

During the 6-month demonstration project, SWP plans to inject over 31,000 tonnes of CO₂ into three coalbed methane-producing wells, whilst simultaneously recovering the methane. The San Juan Basin is one of the top ranked basins in the world for CO₂ coalbed sequestration. Coal is uniquely able to store large quantities of carbon and by injecting CO₂ into the coalbeds, displacement of the naturally stored methane is achieved.

The project also produces water as a by-product and SWP intends to desalinate it and use to irrigate nearby areas stressed by prolonged drought.

The SWP is part of the DOE’s network of seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership set up to accelerate the development of the technology, infrastructure and regulations for large-scale CO₂ sequestration across the US. The SWP is led by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and includes the states of Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah as well of parts of Arizona, Kansas, Texas and Wyoming. The San Juan field test is one of five currently being conducted by SWP.