Indutrial CO2 Storage and 45Q Tax Credit Consulting
A&A Consulting Services for CO₂ Storage, CO₂-EOR, and Federal 45Q Tax-Credit Qualification — Serving Cement, Iron & Steel, Power Generation, Ethanol, Bioenergy (BECCS), and Direct Air Capture (DAC) Projects — Worldwide
Assign your industrial or power-sector project's CO₂ storage, CO₂-EOR, or federal 45Q tax-credit qualification work to A&A, and let the high-level, seasoned CO₂-storage consultants of the A&A Consulting Team put more than five decades of hands-on CO₂ experience to work for you, around the world.
A growing list of hard-to-abate industrial and power-generation sectors — cement, iron and steel, power generation, ethanol and other bioenergy, and direct air capture (DAC) — are capturing their process or flue-gas CO₂ and either storing it permanently underground or using it for CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The economics improved sharply in 2025: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) restructured the federal Section 45Q tax credit so that CO₂-EOR now qualifies for the same credit rate as dedicated geologic storage — both at $85 per metric ton for industrial and power-sector capture, and $180 per metric ton for direct air capture — removing the prior economic penalty for projects that chose EOR over dedicated storage. That change, combined with a maturing base of storage capacity and injection-well expertise, is accelerating project development across all five sectors.
Avasthi & Associates, Inc. (A&A) is an independent petroleum engineering and geoscience consulting firm. A&A does not sell CO₂ capture technology, capture equipment, injection equipment, monitoring technology, or carbon-credit/offset products — our only business is expert technical consulting, which means A&A's recommendations are never influenced by a stake in any particular vendor, technology, or carbon-market program.
A&A's expertise on these projects is on the geologic storage and CO₂-EOR side — site characterization, injection engineering, well design and regulatory support, monitoring/reporting/verification (MRV), and 45Q tax-credit qualification support. A&A does not design or engineer the capture technology itself (for example, an amine or calcium-looping capture unit for a cement kiln or power plant, a direct-reduced-iron process modification, or a DAC contactor system) — for that scope, your project's capture-technology licensor or EPC contractor is the right partner, and A&A is well positioned to work alongside them. If your company needs help with the storage, CO₂-EOR, or 45Q tax-credit side of a cement, iron & steel, power generation, ethanol, bioenergy, or DAC project, please contact us — the high-level, seasoned consultants and subject-matter experts (SMEs) of the A&A Consulting Team, and collaborators, are available to help your company, around the world.
Related A&A Service: This page is one of nine services under A&A's broader energy transition practice — for A&A's full energy storage, hydrogen, ammonia, lithium, and geothermal service directory, please see A&A's Energy Transition & Decarbonization Consulting page.
1. Cement and Iron & Steel Production
Cement and iron & steel production are two of the largest sources of hard-to-abate industrial process CO₂ — cement manufacturing accounts for roughly 7%–8% of global CO₂ emissions (calcination of limestone releases CO₂ as a direct chemical byproduct, independent of the fuel used to fire the kiln), and iron and steel production accounts for a similar 7%–8% share. Both industries are still early in CCUS deployment — the first projects appeared only in 2017 — but activity is accelerating, including three major European clusters (Athos in the Netherlands, Longship in Norway, and Net Zero Teesside in the UK) and, in the United States, Oxy's partnership with Total to capture roughly 725,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year at Holcim's Portland, Colorado cement plant. Some steel plants using direct-reduced-iron (DRI) processing generate a high-concentration CO₂ stream that is a comparatively low-cost capture candidate.
2. Power Generation
CCUS is increasingly being used to retrofit coal-, natural-gas-, and biomass-fired power plants to abate their CO₂ emissions. Coal alone still supplied roughly 34% of global electricity generation in 2025, with natural gas the second-largest fossil source — and, under the International Energy Agency's Stated Policies Scenario, CCUS is expected to play a material role in mitigating power-sector emissions as global electricity demand continues to grow. Several major power-generation CCUS projects are now in operation worldwide, with more in development.
3. Ethanol Production and Bioenergy (BECCS)
Ethanol fermentation produces a byproduct CO₂ stream that is already close to pure, making it one of the lowest-cost capture opportunities of any industrial process — a major reason ethanol has been among the first sectors to build out CO₂ capture and pipeline infrastructure at scale. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) — burning biomass to generate power in a facility equipped with carbon capture, so that CO₂ is both removed from the atmosphere by the biomass's growth cycle and then permanently stored — is a related, negative-emissions pathway. Drax's biomass power station in North Yorkshire, UK, intended to become one of Europe's first BECCS facilities, has secured environmental permits for its carbon-capture units, though Drax paused its investment decision in 2025 pending confirmation of UK government support, illustrating that BECCS project economics remain closely tied to policy certainty.
4. Direct Air Capture (DAC)
Direct air capture pulls CO₂ directly out of ambient air — rather than from a concentrated industrial or flue-gas stream — and either uses it for CO₂-EOR or stores it permanently underground, making DAC a negative-emissions technology in its own right. Occidental's 1PointFive subsidiary is nearing startup of its STRATOS facility in the Permian Basin, Texas — designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year and, once at full capacity, to inject roughly 722,000 metric tons annually into three dedicated Class VI wells in a deep saline formation at approximately 4,400 feet — a storage configuration squarely within A&A's site-characterization and well-integrity expertise.
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full Class VI well-integrity due diligence and regulatory guidance, please see A&A's CO₂ Injection Wells: Class II vs. Class VI Wells page.
5. A&A's CO₂ Storage, CO₂-EOR, and 45Q Consulting Services
Whichever of the sectors above your project's CO₂ comes from, once it is captured it must be permanently stored underground or used for CO₂-EOR to qualify for the 45Q tax credit — and that is where A&A's expertise applies. A&A's services for cement, iron & steel, power generation, ethanol, bioenergy, and DAC projects include:
• Storage-Setting Screening and Site Characterization: evaluating whether a depleted or depleting oil and gas field or a deep saline formation is the better storage setting for your project's captured CO₂, and characterizing the selected site
• CO₂-EOR Evaluation: evaluating whether your captured CO₂ can be used for enhanced oil recovery — combining a revenue-generating recovery project with permanent CO₂ storage — as an alternative or complement to dedicated storage
• Injection Well Design and Class II/Class VI Regulatory Support: well-integrity due diligence and regulatory support for CO₂-EOR (Class II) and dedicated-storage (Class VI) injection wells
• Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Plan Development: developing an MRV plan consistent with applicable federal and state requirements, and supporting ongoing project surveillance
• 45Q Tax-Credit Qualification Support: helping your company document and qualify captured CO₂ for the federal 45Q tax credit, under its current OBBBA-era rate structure
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full CO₂-EOR and CCS/CCUS consulting practice — site screening, injection engineering, well design, and MRV — please see A&A's CCS/CCUS Consulting page.
Related A&A Service: For A&A's dedicated site characterization and storage-performance modeling for a depleted or depleting oil and gas field, please see A&A's CO₂ Storage in Depleted / Depleting Oil and Gas Fields page.
Related A&A Service: For A&A's dedicated site characterization and storage-performance modeling for a deep saline formation, please see A&A's CO₂ Storage in Deep Saline Formations page.
Software and Technical Tools
The high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team are expert users of the industry-standard software and technical tools used for state-of-the-art CO₂ storage and CO₂-EOR studies, including:
• CMG-GEM / CMG-STARS: for CO₂ injection, storage, and coupled reservoir simulation
• Petrel: for 3D geological and reservoir modeling of storage and production reservoirs
• PHREEQC: for subsurface geochemistry relevant to CO₂ storage
• Python and MATLAB: for techno-economic modeling and data analytics
Deliverables
The high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team deliver decision-grade technical and commercial intelligence for complex industrial CO₂ storage and 45Q tax-credit projects, including, but not limited to:
• A storage-setting screening and site-characterization study, or a CO₂-EOR feasibility evaluation
• Simulation-driven storage-performance and injection-well design
• A well-by-well Class II/Class VI integrity assessment and regulatory-compliance plan
• An MRV plan ready for regulatory submission
• 45Q tax-credit qualification documentation, and high-quality final reports and executive presentations
To put the high-level, seasoned consultants and subject-matter experts (SMEs) of the A&A Consulting Team, and collaborators, to work on your company's cement, iron & steel, power generation, ethanol, bioenergy, or DAC project's CO₂ storage, CO₂-EOR, or 45Q tax-credit needs, please contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does A&A help design or engineer CO₂ capture technology for our cement, steel, power, ethanol, or DAC project?
No. A&A's expertise is on the storage side — site characterization, CO₂-EOR evaluation, injection-well design, MRV, and 45Q qualification support. A&A does not design capture technology (for example, an amine unit, a calcium-looping system, a DRI process modification, or a DAC contactor), and does not sell any capture, injection, or monitoring equipment. A&A is well positioned to work alongside your project's capture-technology licensor or EPC contractor on the storage and regulatory side of the project.
What changed with the 45Q tax credit under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)?
OBBBA, enacted in 2025, unified the 45Q credit rate by end use rather than by geologic storage method: industrial and power-sector CO₂ capture now qualifies for $85 per metric ton whether the CO₂ is used for CO₂-EOR or placed in dedicated geologic storage, and direct air capture qualifies for $180 per metric ton under the same structure. Previously, CO₂-EOR projects received a meaningfully lower credit rate than dedicated-storage projects; that gap is now closed, which has improved the economics of CO₂-EOR as an option for industrial and power-sector emitters.
Should our project use CO₂-EOR or dedicated geologic storage?
It depends on whether a suitable EOR-candidate reservoir is available near your facility. CO₂-EOR combines a revenue-generating oil-recovery project with permanent CO₂ storage and, since OBBBA, now qualifies for the same 45Q rate as dedicated storage; a deep saline formation or a fully depleted field not suited to EOR would go directly to a dedicated-storage evaluation. A&A's consultants can help evaluate which pathway — or combination — fits your project and its location.
Which industrial and power sectors does A&A serve on CO₂ storage and 45Q projects?
A&A's CO₂ storage, CO₂-EOR, and 45Q tax-credit consulting is available to cement, iron & steel, power generation (coal, natural gas, and biomass), ethanol, other bioenergy (including BECCS), and direct air capture (DAC) projects, as well as any other industrial source seeking to permanently store or beneficially use its captured CO₂.
Does A&A sell CO₂, injection equipment, monitoring technology, or carbon credits?
No. A&A is an independent consulting firm and does not sell CO₂ capture technology, capture equipment, injection equipment, monitoring technology, or carbon-credit/offset products, so A&A's recommendations are never influenced by a stake in any particular vendor, technology, or carbon-market program.
