Decatur Campus

The ADM Decatur carbon storage project is a bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) system located at Archer Daniels Midland’s ethanol production complex in Decatur, Illinois, injecting captured fermentation CO₂ into deep saline formations within the Illinois Basin. The project includes two phases: the Illinois Basin–Decatur Project (IBDP) demonstration phase and the commercial-scale Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (IL-ICCS) project operating under EPA Class VI permitting and Subpart RR MRV requirements. CO₂ captured from ethanol fermentation is compressed and injected into the Mount Simon Sandstone, a regionally extensive saline reservoir overlain by the Eau Claire shale confining system, approximately ~7,000 ft depth. The project history began with site characterization and testing in the late 2000s, followed by injection during the IBDP demonstration phase from 2011–2014, where approximately 1 million tonnes of CO₂ were injected to validate large-scale saline storage and monitoring techniques. After successful demonstration, ADM expanded to the IL-ICCS commercial phase, initiating injection in 2017 with a designed capture capacity of approximately ~1 million tonnes CO₂ per year, making it one of the first large-scale BECCS deployments globally.