The latest edition of Ethanol Producer Magazine’s U.S. & Canada Fuel Ethanol Plant Map includes comprehensive data on carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS)—an umbrella term that encompasses all types of biogenic CO2 capture from ethanol plants.

The data is broken down into seven distinct types of CCUS activity, including four sequestration subsets and three utilization subsets. The utilization subsets include merchant capture (MERCH)—typically defined by over-the-fence CO2 processing for conventional markets, often by decades-old arrangement; carbon capture and transformation (CCT)—novel efforts to convert CO2 into biobased fuels and chemicals; and enhanced oil recovery (EOR), sometimes considered a hybrid of CO2 utilization and storage.

The sequestration subsets include onsite carbon capture and storage (OCCS)—sequestration carried out at or near ethanol plant property (i.e., within relative proximity to the source, sometimes involving short pipelines); pipeline carbon capture and storage (PCCS); rail carbon capture and storage (RCCS)—often referred to as “carbon by rail;” and intermodal carbon capture and storage (ICCS), a catchall term for proposed operations pursuing alternative or multifaceted CO2 delivery methods such as truck, rail, barge, or combinations thereof.

The CCUS data is further broken down by project status, simply placing each CCUS project into one of two binary categories: operational or planned. Note: the actual data (not included in this story) includes asterisks next to more than 50 planned PCCS projects with known plans, previous or deferred, to join Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed multi-state pipeline, which recently lost its permit approvals to sequester CO2 deep underground in North Dakota.

Utilization: MERCH, CCT and EOR
While the U.S. ethanol industry has been known to have as many as 60 ethanol plants capturing CO2 for conventional commercial markets—food, beverage, dry ice, etc.—Ethanol Producer Magazine currently identifies 51 such operations. Notably, nine of the 51 MERCH facilities on the map have previous or deferred plans to convert to PCCS (if and when associated carrier pipelines become operational). The facilities awaiting PCCS are predominantly in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.

Among transformation plays, Kansas Ethanol in Lyons, Kansas, is in the early operational stages of CO2 transformation aimed at low-carbon synthetic base lubricating oils and jet fuel. Archer Daniels Midland-Decatur, already an operational OCCS facility, is working with a company to divert a portion of its biogenic CO2 to CCT. These types of CCUS conversions, or stream splits, are becoming more common. Two MERCH facilities, one in the U.S. and another in Canada, are planning to convert to CCT when the timing is right. Others with CCT pursuits include Red River Energy in Rosholt, South Dakota, Adkins Energy, in Lena, Illinois, and Greenfield Global in Varennes, Quebec—each exploring concepts and technologies related to converting CO2 into green methanol or related maritime fuels.

Sequestration: OCCS, PCCS, RCCS and ICCS
Perhaps the most compelling data point on the map is that 18 ethanol plants are now involved in, or actively planning, onsite carbon capture and sequestration. As of mid-March, there were three active, permitted OCCS operations and 15 others in the planning stages. The operational OCCS facilities include two North Dakota plants—Blue Flint Ethanol and Gevo North Dakota—along with Archer Daniels Midland-Decatur (Illinois). Plus, Cardinal Ethanol in Union City, Indiana, secured its Class VI permitting for CO2 sequestration on March 3.

Along with Cardinal Ethanol, other planned, under development and soon-to-commission OCCS facilities include Aemetis, Front Range Energy, Alto Ingredients, Marquis Energy, Big River Resources-Galva, One Earth Energy, PureField Ingredients, The Andersons-Clymers, Western Plains Energy and Iroquois Bio-Energy.

Due to the large number of facilities still waiting on the fate of the Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline, the largest overall category of CCUS activity remains pipeline-related carbon capture, with 67 facilities across the U.S. and Canada associated with PCCS—more than 50 with now uncertain commitments to Summit. Three related PCCS projects are planned by Carbon America in northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska, and 13 PCCS facilities are on, or are planning to join, Tallgrass’ now operational Trailblazer pipeline. The commissioning of the Trailblazer has, in fact, made Nebraska the top source of sequestered ethanol plant CO2—with at least eight plants on the network at press time.

There is currently one planned carbon by rail (RCCS) project in the U.S., and another categorized as intermodal (ICCS). Midwest Renewable Energy, a small ethanol plant in Southerland, Nebraska, for example, is proposing to rail its CO2 to a sequestration site. Likewise, a facility on the West Coast, Pelican Renewables, has previously floated an intermodal rail/barge CO2 concept, and at least one Upper Midwest ethanol producer is exploring the idea of trucking its CO2 to a permitted storage site operated by a sister company.

These two categories—RCCS and ICCS—are likely to become more relevant in the future as ethanol producers entertain alternative means of CO2 transport, for both sequestration and utilization, if pipelines continue to face regulatory barriers and landowner opposition.

States Leading in Storage, New Uses
When it comes to the operational OCCS, PCCS, EOR and CCT facilities in the U.S.—14 in total—Nebraska leads the way with eight PCCS ethanol plants on the Trailblazer pipeline in mid-March. No other state has more than three operational ethanol plant sequestration or utilization operations (excluding MERCH operations). Kansas has three active operations, two directing their CO2 to EOR and a third facility in the initial stages of commercial-scale CCT. North Dakota leads the way in onsite sequestration, with two ethanol plants holding Class VI-permitted OCCS operations and actively sequestering. Illinois has one active, Class VI-permitted OCCS operation in ADM. And, as previously mentioned, Cardinal Ethanol recently obtained its own Class VI permit to pursue onsite or nearby CO2 sequestration.

Author: Tom Bryan,
President, BBI International

Printed in Issue 1, 2026 of Carbon Capture Magazine

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