In the United States (US), Aemetis, Inc., a renewable natural gas (RNG) and renewable fuels company focused on negative carbon intensity (CI) products, has announced that its Aemetis Carbon Capture subsidiary has been awarded the first carbon dioxide sequestration characterization well permit issued by the State of California.
According to a statement, all of the necessary city, county, regional, and state agency permits have been received to drill the carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration characterization well on the 24-acre Riverbank site that was acquired by Aemetis in 2022.
A high-capacity access road and operational pad for the deep well drilling rig and related equipment already has been completed.
The characterization well is designed to be drilled to a depth of about 8 000 feet in order to obtain the soil composition data required for the issuance of a final Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Class VI Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) well permit.
The Aemetis project has achieved a significant milestone as the first fully permitted CO2sequestration characterization well in California, requiring the cooperation of many state, regional, and local agencies. Over a twenty-year period, the Riverbank CO2sequestration project is expected to inject and sequester about 28 million metric tonnes of CO2captured in saline formations deep underground and protected by multiple layers of caprock, said Brian Fojtasek of ATSI, the Project Manager for the Aemetis Carbon Capture CCS project at Riverbank.
Help California remove CO2
The CCS injection well is expected to sequester about 1.4 million tonnes per annum of CO2, with approximately 200 000 tonnes of CO2per year produced by the Aemetis sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel plant under development on an adjacent parcel of the 125-acre Riverbank site.
The Aemetis project at the Riverbank site is designed to contribute to carbon removal in California. According to CARB, California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 369 million tonnes in 2020.
In a letter to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on July 22, 2022, Governor Newsom stated: “Simply put, it will not be possible to eliminate all emissions across our economy, so achieving carbon neutrality will rely on carbon sequestration…I request that CARB set a 20 million metric tonne carbon removal target for 2030 and a 100 million metric tonne carbon removal target for 2045.”
We would like to express appreciation to the White House and the federal EPA in Washington DC and San Francisco for their strong support of the Aemetis project and willingness to work proactively with California agencies to review the project and issue the various permits required to drill the Riverbank CO2 characterization well. Brian is a former Exxon refining engineer and has commissioned a US$10 billion refinery and a US$4 billion refinery as project manager. Working together for the past five years on a variety of projects, the Aemetis and ATSI team has demonstrated an ability to timely execute one of the most complex parts of a CCS project – well drilling permits, stated Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis.
