It was recently agreed that the air quality impacts of a CCS project at the Bonanza Power Plant, located in Vernal, would be assessed by researchers at the Utah State University centre.

This project has been called the Uinta Basin CarbonSAFE project and the aim of it will be to sequester a minimum of fifty million metric tons of captures CO2 from the power plant, along with other sources, throughout the next thirty years. On top of this, USU will be assisting the University of Utah with a variety of other parts within the overall project.

To help the $480,000 project achieve its aim, the Bingham Research Center has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. This grant has been awarded because this project is part of a larger project which is known as the Uinta-Piceance Basin Carbon Management and Community Engagement Partnership. This larger project is being led by the University of Utah (USU).

Whilst this study is in progress, Lyman, who is part of the local advisory board for the overall CCS project, will be responsible for providing results of this study to the public. From this information, lawmakers will have the opportunity to create better policies and decisions around how this could be taken forwards and implemented within the region in other opportunities.

Director of the Bingham Research Center, Seth Lyman, commented, “We are looking to see how feasible it is to commercially store CO2 emissions that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. The basic idea of CCS is to capture carbon emissions before they enter the air and, instead, store them in the ground.”

Luman continued, “The purpose of the project is to provide information to our local Uinta Basin community and receive community input about potential carbon sequestration projects. This will include investigation of possible impacts, preparation and distribution of materials and information, and conducting listening sessions.”