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Pipeline builder says data gaps make it hard to capitalize on carbon credits
A pipeline infrastructure company says when it comes to carbon credits, there’s a gap in data collection between the farm and the end-user, making it hard for the entire value chain to benefit.
CEO Matt Vining with Navigator CO2 Ventures tells Brownfield it will take partnerships to get a seamless and transparent flow of data so everyone along the value chain can capitalize on potential carbon credits. “How do we link up the real value chain such that the farmer sees the benefit at, you know, at the soil and not just to the ethanol producer? For us, it’s about creating the integrity of that information, preserving it, and allowing our customers to monetize it.”
And Vining says creating partnerships for data transparency can help farmers make money on a net-back basis. “We already do this in other elements of our business so it’s just bringing together the data points and the stakeholders to build that information bridge.”
Vining says he’s focused on making sure nobody in the ag value chain is left out, from farming and livestock to fertilizer to ethanol to alternative uses.
Navigator CO2 Ventures has proposed building the 13-hundred-mile Heartland Greenway pipeline from South Dakota, Minnesota, and Nebraska diagonally across Iowa to move about 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to permanent underground storage in Illinois from 20 ethanol and fertilizer plants. Local county-level meetings with stakeholders began in 2021.
Brownfield interviewed Vining during the 2022 National Ethanol Conference, where Vining was also a panel participant discussing carbon data issues.