Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP)

Launched in 2003 by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) is an initiative for advancing carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) demonstration projects and mapping potential storage locations. There are 7 partnerships: Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership (led by Montana State University)Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (led by Illinois State Geological Survey)Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership (led by University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center)Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (led by Battelle)Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (led by Southern States Energy Board)Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (led by New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology)West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (led by Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory)The programme had three successive phases: Characterization Phase (2003–2005): The objective was to collect data on CO2 sources and sinks and develop the human capital to support and enable future carbon sequestration field tests and deployments. Validation Phase (2005–2009): The objective is to plan and implement small-scale (<1 million tons CO2) field testing of storage technologies in areas determined to be favorable for carbon storage. The partnerships are currently conducting over 20 small-scale geologic field tests and 11 terrestrial field tests.Development Phase (2008–2018): The primary objective is the development of large-scale (>1 million tons of CO2) CCUS projects, which will demonstrate that large volumes of CO2 can be injected safely, permanently, and economically into geologic formations representative of large storage capacity.

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