Technologies to Ensure Permanent Geologic Carbon Storage | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The grant opportunity titled "Technologies to Ensure Permanent Geologic Carbon Storage" (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0000652) is a U.S. Department of Energy effort administered through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to fund research and development that makes underground carbon dioxide storage safer, more reliable, and more predictable over the long term. The central goal is to support new technologies and improved simulation tools that can demonstrate and strengthen the security of geologic carbon storage, meaning the ability to inject CO2 into deep underground formations and keep it permanently contained. The announcement targets real-world uncertainties that can affect storage projects, including how well subsurface formations and engineered barriers contain CO2, how injection can be managed more effectively, how much CO2 a reservoir can store without compromising safety, and how to reduce or respond to the risk of CO2 leaking through manmade pathways such as wells.

The FOA is structured around four technical areas that together cover the full chain of storage assurance, from understanding legacy infrastructure to improving field practices and modeling. Area of Interest 1 focuses on studies of existing wellbores that have been exposed to CO2. This reflects a key practical concern in carbon storage: many potential storage sites are located in regions with a long history of drilling, and old or abandoned wells can be potential leakage pathways. Work in this area would generally involve characterizing how well materials (cement, casing, seals, completion components) behave under CO2-rich conditions, how degradation occurs over time, and what monitoring or diagnostic methods can detect early integrity problems. The intent is to produce evidence-based understanding of risks posed by existing wells and to improve methods for evaluating them.

Area of Interest 2 targets advanced wellbore integrity technologies, which is about preventing leakage by improving the design, materials, and remediation approaches associated with wells used for injection and monitoring, as well as legacy wells that may need repair. This could include improved cements and sealants resistant to CO2 and brine interactions, better mechanical barrier systems, enhanced testing and verification methods, and more effective techniques to repair compromised well sections. The underlying theme is that long-term storage security depends heavily on well integrity, since wells are among the few engineered penetrations through the confining layers that otherwise keep CO2 trapped.

Area of Interest 3 is centered on field methods to optimize storage capacity while ensuring containment. This area connects operational practices to both performance and safety: maximizing how much CO2 can be stored in a formation requires carefully managing injection strategy, pressure, plume movement, and interaction with formation fluids, all while maintaining safe margins that prevent fracturing caprock or creating pathways for migration. Projects in this category would typically involve field-scale measurement techniques, monitoring methods, injection optimization approaches, and operational decision tools that improve reservoir storage efficiency. It also explicitly ties capacity optimization to containment, emphasizing that increased storage utilization must not come at the expense of leakage risk.

Area of Interest 4 addresses enhanced simulation tools to improve predictions and overall performance of geologic storage. Modeling is essential for planning and regulating storage projects because stakeholders need credible forecasts of plume migration, pressure buildup, trapping mechanisms, and long-term behavior of CO2 in the subsurface. This topic area supports improved computational tools and workflows that reduce uncertainty and better reflect real conditions, potentially including better representation of geologic heterogeneity, geomechanical effects, coupled fluid flow and geochemistry, wellbore interactions, and risk assessment. The practical outcome sought is stronger predictive capability that helps operators design safer projects and helps regulators and communities gain confidence in long-term permanence.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, which typically means DOE expects substantial involvement during the project (for example, coordination on technical direction, milestones, and reporting). The activity category is energy science and technology and other research and development, listed under CFDA 81.089 (Fossil Energy Research and Development). The FOA anticipated up to 20 awards, with an estimated total funding amount of $14.1 million. The maximum award size (ceiling) is listed as $1.25 million, and the minimum award size (floor) is $0, indicating flexibility for smaller proposals depending on scope. A cost-sharing or matching requirement applies, meaning awardees are expected to contribute a portion of total project costs from non-federal sources, which is common for applied energy technology demonstrations and development work.

Eligibility is broadly open to many entity types, including DOE/NNSA National Laboratory contractors, with specific exclusions: other federal agencies, non-DOE Federally Funded Research and Development Center contractors, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995. The opportunity was posted March 6, 2012, with an application deadline of April 17, 2012, by 8:00 PM Eastern Time, with a strict late-submission policy stating that late applications would not be reviewed or considered. The archive date is July 18, 2012, indicating this specific solicitation is historical, but it still provides a clear snapshot of DOE priorities and the types of R&D topics they were seeking to advance for permanent geologic carbon storage.

For applicants needing access support or questions about the announcement, the listed contact is Ashley E. Scekeres (Contract Specialist) at NETL, with the provided phone number and email address in the source text, and an additional information link referenced through FedConnect.

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