Durbin Announces Nearly $1 Million in Recovery Act Funding for New Carbon Sequestration Training Center at U of I
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the University of Illinois was the recipient of $994,991 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the development of a carbon sequestration training center in Champaign, Illinois. The center will be run by the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium and will facilitate the understanding of technologies required for site development, operations, and monitoring of commercial carbon capture and storage projects.
“The new carbon capture training center will further position Illinois as the leader in sequestration efforts,” Durbin said. “This project will train workers for a clean energy economy and help position the United States as a world leader in green technology.”
The training activities will focus on the applied engineering and science of carbon capture and storage for sequestration site developers, engineers and technicians. The University of Illinois center will help produce the workforce necessary to further develop and expand the nation’s emerging carbon capture industry.
Matoon, Illinois will soon be home to the nation’s first emissions free coal power plant through a partnership between the US Department of Energy and the FutrureGen Alliance.