Franklin County-based Battelle was awarded $150,000 for its Simplified Predictive Models for CO2 Sequestration Performance Assessment, which will examine simplified modeling tools to enable rapid feasibility and risk assessment of carbon dioxide sequestration projects.

That project, which has a total price tag of more than $1 million, is a joint effort between Battelle, the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory and Stanford University.

Battelle was also awarded $199,999 for the project Systematic Assessment of Wellbore Integrity for Geologic Carbon Storage Using Regulatory and Industry Information, which will evaluate well records to determine categories of well integrity.

The information it gains from that review will be linked to casing pressure field studies to aid in the facilitation of CO2 use in enhanced oil recovery. It will also help locate suitable CO2 storage fields throughout Ohio.

That $1.7 million project has been taken on by the Colombus-headquartered company, the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, BP Alternative Energy and NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage.

Finally, the Ohio State University earned $1.6m in funding for Reclamation of Ohio Coal Mine Sites Using FGD Byproducts: Phase III Demonstration Projects.

“The objective of the project is to demonstrate in the field that the byproducts that are produced from scrubbing coal (stabilized sulfite FGD material and FGD gypsum) can be beneficially utilized in large-volumes for coal mine reclamation and to show how these byproducts can be used to remediate acid mine drainage at Ohio coal mine locations,” the agency said.

The $6.7 million effort is being advanced by OSU along with partners Resource International, Baker’s Enviro Services and Technology, Haley & Aldrich, AEP, GSE Environmental, Harold Walker and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

All of the projects were selected via a public solicitation process, then reviewed and scored by a third party. The OCDO said that the request for proposals remained open. Funding was still available for projects developing technologies to improve coal combustion efficiency, reduce pollution emissions, develop productive uses for the by-products of coal combustion, or that investigate new processes that enable the efficient conversion of Ohio coal as a feedstock.

“The projects that we are funding will provide valuable research as the state and industry work to find ways to improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of Ohio coal,” Ohio Development Services Agency Office of Energy deputy chief and Ohio Coal Development Office director Chad Smith said.