Dakota Gas breaks carbon dioxide sequestration record

Dakota Gasification Company, a subsidiary of Basin Electric, recently broke the all-time world record for the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestered.

“And we didn’t break it just once,” said Trinity Turnbow, vice president and plant manager at Dakota Gas, “we broke it three days in a row.” That new record set was 147.7 million standard cubic feet per day.

Dakota Gas started sequestering CO₂ in February 2024, but since the year 2000 has been sending captured carbon dioxide to Canada for enhanced oil recovery; whatever remains is put into the company’s sequestration wells near Beulah, North Dakota.

“We are obligated by contract to fulfill our CO₂ customers first,” Turnbow said, “and it just so happened that a few weeks ago our Canadian customers were taking less than normal, and that allowed us to sequester more.”

He said once the Canadian contracts – there are two of them – are fulfilled at the end of 2027, Dakota Gas will be able to sequester all of the CO₂ that can be captured and compressed at the nearby wells. “At that point, we’ll reset the record again and it probably won’t get beat anytime soon; we’ll set our own record at our max capacity one of these days and that’s where it’ll stay.”

Turnbow said equipment at the wells has been working properly since carbon dioxide began to be sequestered at the site last year. That’s a good omen for when Dakota Gas begins fully sequestering its CO₂ – a move that will be more financially viable than sending it to Canada.

“We can sequester over 1 million metric tons of it a year right now,” he said. “But once we don’t send it to Canada anymore, we’ll be able to sequester 2.25 million metric tons, providing more value to Dakota Gas, Basin Electric, and our membership.”