Christopher Dacanay ENERGY — A sign for Tenaska’s Weirton field office sits alongside Three Springs Drive.

WEIRTON — Omaha-based energy company Tenaska is continuing to develop a multi-state carbon capture and storage hub in the Upper Ohio Valley to help local industries reduce their emissions and stay operational.

The hub presents a solution for carbon dioxide-producing businesses — power plants, refineries and manufacturing facilities, for example — that want to remain stable in the long term, amid growing environmental concerns.

Fundamentally, carbon capture and storage entails collecting CO2 emissions and sequestering them deep in the Earth. The compressed CO2 is typically transported by pipeline to an injection well, which places it underground for potentially permanent storage.

Tenaska’s hub would offer transportation and storage services to industries in the Upper Ohio Valley, specifically Jefferson and Harrison counties in Ohio, Hancock and Marshall counties in West Virginia and Washington County in Pennsylvania. Although the exact number of wells hasn’t been finalized, Tenaska has submitted permits for two wells in northern Hancock County, with Carroll County permits anticipated for submission within the next month, as of February.

Company officials are still early in pursuit of agreements to execute the hub, according to project manager Scott Murray. Agreements fall into three categories: Surface injection well locations, subsurface space and right-of-way for transport pipelines.

In April 2024, Murray estimated that operations in the hub could begin fully as soon as 2027. The project aims to transport 5 million metric tons of CO2 per year, once operational.

CCS technology could be in local residents’ backyards very soon, depending on the hub’s progress. That may be frightening to some, considering such development is novel in the Ohio Valley, but Tenaska officials and independent experts claim much thought and many steps ensure CCS projects function properly and pose minimal risk to neighbors.

Edward Rubin is professor emeritus of engineering and public policy and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. A 2019 literature review called Rubin the most highly cited and published author with respect to CCS economic and environmental impacts, according to CMU.

Rubin’s involvement with CCS began around two decades ago, when the technology was first emerging as a potential climate solution. He contributed to an early international study, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land.

No industrial project — whether it’s CCS, building a steel mill or automobile manufacturing — is totally risk-free, Rubin said Feb. 5.

CCS should be evaluated in context: Accidents like pipeline leaks are rare, he said, noting that pipelines have been transporting CO2 since the 1970s. Today, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 miles of CO2 pipeline, and their safety record is comparable or better than oil and gas pipelines.

“In any area of industrial activity, accidents do happen,” Rubin said. “They’re rare but never a zero-risk. I think one of the things you have to grapple with is putting risk into perspective. It’s very easy to focus on a particular event and give the false impression that things like this happen every day.”

Susan Hovorka, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, was initially skeptical of CCS. However, 25 years of research and CO2 injection field projects have convinced her: “We can provide a high level of confidence that this is a good mitigation (technique).”

Prospective CCS projects look for specific rock formations — usually a mile underground — that are full of microscopic pores, or small spaces between grains, Hovorka said. CO2 is injected into the porous rock and held in place by intermolecular forces, meaning it gets stuck very effectively, much like how spilled liquid soaks into cloth or beach sand and can’t easily be removed.

Injectors also look to see that the porous layer is surrounded by solid, impermeable rock layers that act like a secure vault for CO2, Hovorka said.

One of Hovorka’s own field projects in 2004 saw 100 truckloads of CO2 injected at 5,050 feet. Two years later, the team returned to the same well and had extreme difficulty removing any CO2, which had equilibrated and gotten stuck in the porous space like mustard in a T-shirt.

Used for CO2 injection, Class XI permits are the “most tenuous” of the Environmental Protection Agency’s six underground injection permit classes, according to Tenaska’s Engineering Director Ryan Choquette.

It’s a two-stage permit process, beginning with permission to construct and gather real-world data, Choquette said. Entities must then update their models based on that data and reapply before receiving permission to inject. Each injection well must have its own separate permit.

Wells must undergo triple verification for safety, looking at existing geological records, physical rock testing from cores and on-site measurements during drilling, Choquette said. Unlike other well classes, CO2 injection wells are built to higher standards, including cement casing that runs the entire length.

Under Class XI regulations, Tenaska must identify other wells — separate, abandoned oil and gas wells passing through the pore space, for example — that could affect CO2 storage. The company must calculate critical pressures and monitor existing wells, repairing any that are problematic and maintaining financial assurance to fix any issues and properly plug wells after project completion.

In late 2024, the Tri-State CCS Hub finalized its CarbonSAFE phase 3 award with the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. Timberly Ross, Tenaska’s senior director of community relations, said that’s up to $69 million of funding and cost sharing over three years, supporting characterization and permitting efforts for the project.

Choquette, who’s been involved in pipeline construction for more than two decades, said Tenaska’s pipeline infrastructure will feature tough steel and superior impact impact resistance — essential features in the Appalachian region, which is prone to landslides.

A 2020 incident in Satartia, Miss., resulted in CO2 mixed with hydrogen sulfide leaking into a low-lying area after a pipeline rupture on eroding cliffs. Choquette said health effects that nearby individuals suffered could have been caused by the latter chemical compound, which Tenaska will not transport at the same level done in Satartia.

Additionally, Choquette said, Tenaska’s pipelines will feature automated valves to isolate CO2 quickly, in case of a leak, and construction methods will be adjusted based on topography to increase safety.

Hovorka said surface infrastructure facilities must have detailed safety plans to prevent rapid CO2 release incidents.

CO2 is heavier than air and tends to pool in low-lying areas like gullies, basements or depressions, Hovorka said. In the event of a release, people should avoid low areas and use fans or ventilation to prevent CO2 buildup indoors.

Hovorka said residents near CCS projects should be able to ask questions about ensuring safety. CO2 structures are more safe than most others, including gas stations, she noted, but the technology is new to some and not understood.

Tenaska established field offices in Cadiz and Weirton and held public engagement events for local individuals to ask questions.