North Dakota poised to lead nation and world in carbon capture, hydrogen development, rare earth element extraction

Last week, UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) hosted its annual Energizing North Dakota’s Future Summit. The event brings together academics, industry professionals and state policymakers to discuss topics critical to the future of energy production in North Dakota.

Charles Gorecki, CEO of the EERC, kicked off the event — now in its eighth year — by highlighting the state’s position as a major player in the global energy supply chain.

“I really believe providing clean, reliable and affordable energy starts at home,” he said. “We have the opportunity with the resource base we have to solve those challenges — North Dakota is an ideal place to do that. We can export that technology around the country and globe, so we can have more clean, reliable and affordable energy for a growing population that demands it.”

David Straley, director of government and public affairs at the North American Coal Corp. and chair of the EERC Foundation’s board of directors, agreed. Straley also praised the work of the EERC’s more than 200 employees.

“These are some of the best and brightest scientists in America solving real-world problems,” he said.

Delivering the event’s keynote address, UND President Andrew Armacost thanked state legislators in attendance for their continued support of higher education in North Dakota. He cited the $182 million earmarked toward research expenditures at UND last year — up $72 million from four years prior — plus a new science, technology, engineering and mathematics complex and recently launched degree programs in biomedical and aerospace engineering, as evidence of robust scholarship on campus.

Furthermore, the EERC’s work is a key component of UND’s national security initiative — a partnership with the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to bolster research, education and workforce development, Armacost added.

Make no mistake, “energy policy is national security policy,” he said. “How we embed our research in energy systems will be a vital part of this whole national security and space initiative.”

Heartland Hydrogen Hub

As one of seven regional clean energy projects selected to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Heartland Hydrogen Hub is a planned project to decarbonize sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing, while producing clean hydrogen for use in power generation. The EERC will work with industry partners Xcel Energy, Marathon Petroleum Corporation and TC Energy across five states – Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wisconsin.

The total amount allocated toward the project — currently under negotiation — is up to $925 million, funded in part through the  federal Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.

Chad Wocken, assistant director of clean energy solutions at the EERC, said one of the project’s goals is to expand upon hydrogen’s existing applications.

“The hope is that over time, those can expand from what have been traditional industrial uses of hydrogen and start to look at using it as a fuel for heavy duty transportation,” he said. “EERC’s role in the hub is overall program management. As an impartial third party, we can facilitate the public-private partnership — we don’t have a commercial stake in the game.”

Zachary Thobe, senior business development representative at Marathon, said North Dakota is a natural fit for the hub due to its “abundant resource capabilities” in the fields of natural gas and carbon capture — both essential ingredients for producing clean hydrogen

The project also has a workforce development component that will partner with the region’s technical colleges and universities to train students for the jobs that will support the hub’s operations.

Rare Earth Elements

Another area in which North Dakota is poised to be a leader is in the extraction of rare earth elements, harvested from the vast deposits of lignite coal present in the western part of the state.

Jason Laumb, director of advanced energy systems initiatives at the EERC, listed a host of applications requiring the use of rare earth elements, including magnets and batteries.

Laumb added that carbon is critical to making the batteries used in consumer electronics and defense applications. One of carbon’s derivatives, graphene, is particularly useful due to its flexibility, resistance and strength.

“As we become a more electrified society — using more batteries — we’re going to need more carbon,” he said. “In what form? Graphite and graphene. A strand of graphene the thickness of a human hair can lift a grand piano. It’s 200 times stronger than steel.”

Despite graphene’s potential, Laumb said, its high cost remains a major barrier to widespread application.

Laumb also said increasing domestic output of rare earth elements will be a boon to national security.

“Think about an F-22 Raptor – 800 pounds of rare earths are used in one airplane,” he said. “Where do those come from right now? China. I don’t want to get the parts for our airplanes from China, do you?”

“I see North Dakota leading the world in making these products more sustainable — better, stronger and faster,” Laumb added. “Why? Because we don’t shy away from opportunity.”

Enhanced oil recovery

Already the third largest oil-producing state behind Texas and New Mexico, North Dakota’s oil fields hold even more potential due to enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

North Dakota’s oil fields come in two forms — conventional and non-conventional — the latter of which comprises the Bakken Formation. The difference in fields lies in the construction of oil wells, with the Bakken’s wells stretching as deep as three miles and using hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” technology.

EOR increases output by injecting gases into wells. These gases are typically carbon dioxide, but sometimes involve a mixture of methane, ethane and propane, altering the physical properties of oil to allow it to flow more freely.

James Sorensen, director for subsurface research and development at the EERC, said there is the potential to extract upwards of a billion additional barrels of oil from conventional fields in North Dakota. And the prospects in the Bakken are even more promising, he said.

“We believe there’s about 3-7 billion barrels of oil that could be had from applying EOR in the Bakken,” he said. “The way we’re going to achieve those numbers is to innovate, make things more efficient and economical.”

Gorecki added that increased oil production will bring in more tax revenue, as “half of the state’s tax revenue comes from the extraction and production tax of producing Bakken crude” — and those dollars pay for many of the state’s public services and infrastructure projects.