The three projects - Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership; Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership; and Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration - will conduct large-volume tests for the storage of 1 million or more tons of carbon dioxide in deep saline reservoirs.

DOE plans to invest $US197 million over 10 years for the projects, with partnership cost share bringing the total investment to $318 million.

The Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership will conduct geologic CO2 storage projects in the Alberta and Williston basins. The CO2 for this project will come from a post-combustion capture facility located at a coal-fired power plant in the region.

The Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership will demonstrate CO2 storage in the lower Tuscaloosa Formation Massive Sand Unit, which stretches from Texas to Florida.

The Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration will inject several million tons of CO2 into the Jurassic-age Entrada Sandstone Formation in the southwestern United States.

The three projects will double the number of large-volume carbon storage demonstrations in operation worldwide.

Current large projects include the Weyburn Project in Canada, which uses CO2 captured during coal gasification in North Dakota for enhanced oil recovery; Norway's Sleipner Project, which stores CO2 in a saline formation under the North Sea; and the In Salah Project in Algeria, which stores CO2 in a natural gas field.