Commissioners hear about creation of CO2 pipeline in Perkins County

By Becky Uehling

Grant Tribune-Sentinel

Scott Prestidge, public affairs manager of Tallgrass Energy, updated the Perkins County Commissioners Monday of the company’s plans to convert part of Tallgrass’ natural gas pipeline to a carbon dioxide pipeline with construction beginning this fall. The pipeline in question, established several years ago in Perkins County, cuts from east to west near the middle of the county, and encompasses a total of 392 miles from Beatrice to Cheyenne, Wyo. The CO2 that will be transported will come from various ethanol plants across the state, and is one of the first of its kind in the country, he said.

Target date for the completion of the new CO2 conversion is scheduled for some time in 2025, Prestidge said.

The project involves two pipelines, Trailblazer Pipeline Co. LLC and Rockies Express Pipeline LLC. The plan is to abandon the Trailblazer system and repurpose the infrastructure for CO2 transportation, Prestidge said. 

 A sequestering hub will be established by Tallgrass in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Wyoming. At that location, the transported CO2, will be pumped into the ground, taking it out of the atmosphere, and hopefully preventing it from polluting the environment, Prestidge said. 

Tallgrass is located in Leawood, Kans., and owns more than 10,000 miles of pipeline underlying 14 states, including a total of 3,0000 miles in Nebraska, he said.