Officials discuss carbon dioxide project

Portland officials are debating whether to put a pause on carbon sequestration facilities in the city.

Portland Plan Commission made no recommendation Thursday regarding a proposed one-year moratorium on carbon sequestration facilities. It also recommended a one-year moratorium on data centers. Portland City Council will make the final decision on both matters.

Ethanol plant POET Bioprocessing has been looking into a carbon sequestration facility for the last two years. POET Bioprocessing representatives and related personnel pleaded with plan commission during a public hearing Thursday not to move forward with recommending a one-year moratorium on carbon sequestration facilities in Portland.

Carbon sequestration involves “capturing” carbon dioxide — a byproduct of ethanol production — transporting it, typically via a piping system, and injecting and storing it deep underground.

POET Bioprocessing’s Class 6 well project, a $50-million investment, would involve drilling nearly 4,000 feet below the surface. The well would include four layers of steel pipes and three layers of cement to isolate the carbon dioxide from other layers of rock and drinking water. 

Mark Henning, a petroleum geologist with DTE Vantage, explained there are 1,877 oil and gas wells in Jay County according to Indiana Department of Natural Resource’s database, with two Class 2 disposal wells for injecting produced brine.

Most of the oil in Jay County has already been produced, he added.

“The opportunity for landowners to make money off the subsurface of their ground has kind of come and gone (until now),” said Henning.

Over time, the carbon dioxide injected under POET Bioprocessing’s facility would expand beyond its property lines, reaching underneath neighboring private properties.

“Those landowners have to be compensated that, so here we are, we’ve got a unique opportunity for landowners covering a couple thousand acres to once again make some money off of rocks that they own deep inside the surface of the earth,” he explained.

Henning talked about research that has been done by his company to ensure POET’s land is suitable for the project. DTE Vantage obtained 2D seismic data — he explained it’s like an ultrasound of the earth — in Jay County. The data, he said, showed Jay County’s geology would allow for safely conducting carbon sequestration.

“That seismic data allowed geologists like myself to see inside the earth and see that there are no faults or no disruptions inside the rock layers that would cause any sort of a worry or concern about some sort of leakage,” he said.

Adam Homan, general manager of POET Bioprocessing, explained the company previously had been releasing carbon dioxide from the ethanol process into the atmosphere. Three years ago, it started a new process, allowing approximately 25% of the carbon dioxide to be captured and sold into the liquid, food and beverage market.

He noted 40% of Indiana’s corn goes to biofuels and said the industry needs new markets for corn and new markets for ethanol. Carbon sequestration would put POET Bioprocessing in a position to offer products to other markets, such as aviation and marine fuel. Referencing other ethanol facilities in Indiana, he said if POET Bioprocessing didn’t move forward with a carbon sequestration project, it could have a negative impact on its future.

POET Bioprocessing started working in Jay County nearly 18 years ago. It purchases roughly 30 million bushels of local corn each year, Homan added, paying roughly $120 million into the local agricultural community.

He pointed out he and others at the plant are Jay County residents, and he vouched for the project’s safety.

“We wouldn’t do anything that we feel is putting the community in danger,” he said.

Tim Phelps of Indiana Ethanol Producers Association said ethanol facilities are “economic development engines,” offering more than 35,000 jobs and supporting more than 19,000 farms in Indiana.

Carbon dioxide capture, he said, is the next step in the American bioprocessing economy.

“Indiana has the unique geology that no one else in the corn belt has,” he said.

Homan noted the vetting process for the project that they’re currently undergoing through United States Environmental Protection Agency and Indiana Department of Natural Resources. He pointed out the process takes years, and he shared a willingness to work with local officials as needed. Homan, Phelps and Henning urged plan commission not to recommend a moratorium.

Jay County and Portland Building and Planning director John Hemmelgarn and assistant director Pati McLaughlin both said a moratorium wouldn’t ban the project entirely but would give officials time to draft an ordinance regulating such operations.

Plan commission member Ron Laux noted the company has offered to work alongside the city, with Hemmelgarn questioning whether it’s fair to allow POET Bioprocessing to do so when other companies wouldn’t get the same chance before an ordinance is created.

Plan commission member Randy Geesaman — he previously served two terms as Portland mayor — talked about how local residents have harped on missed opportunities in the past.

“Jay County and Portland’s been their own worst enemy as far as hindering economic development growth,” he recalled. “I’ve heard that.”

Plan commission member Kent McClung noted this would be the first carbon sequestration project in Portland and Jay County. He defined it as an adjacent industry to ethanol production and suggested plan commission do more research on the topic. He also noted the discussion came to Portland recently, saying Thursday was the first time POET Bioprocessing had talked to plan commission about the project.

“It’s not a no, but also I understand we need time just to look at it,” he said. 

Geesaman said he believed the commission had enough information to make a decision.

Plan commission then took a vote to declare it would not be in favor of recommending a one-year moratorium on carbon sequestration facilities, with the vote failing to pass at 2-3. After no other motions were made, county attorney Wes Schemenaur noted that meant plan commission would offer no recommendation to city council.

Also Thursday, plan commission recommended a one-year moratorium on data centers.

Hemmelgarn noted data storage centers store various information from CPU units, ranging from medical records to permits to artificial intelligence. Such facilities can span multiple stories and buildings, he explained.

Hemmelgarn talked about establishing an ordinance that would lay out guidelines for data centers while a moratorium is in place, with plan commission members agreeing to “get ahead” of the matter.