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MANCHAC — Air Products has started the next phase of geologic testing required for safe and permanent carbon storage beneath Lake Maurepas as part of its Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, which the company says will create clean energy and strengthen America’s energy independence.

With this next phase, Air Products will be deploying a temporary rig and other equipment to drill a permitted test well on Lake Maurepas to further assess the pore space – located more than a mile below the lake – to ensure it is suitable for safe and permanent carbon storage. The Louisiana Clean Energy Complex will produce clean hydrogen and use carbon capture technology to capture 95 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the production of the hydrogen, and then permanently and safely store the CO₂ more than a mile below Lake Maurepas.

“Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Air Products, and this next phase of pore space assessment is critical to ensuring it’s suitable before any CO₂ is permanently stored,” said Andrew Connolly, Air Products’ vice president and general manager of Low-Carbon Hydrogen Large Projects. “This process will provide a more complete view of the geology found more than a mile underneath the lake, where Air Products intends to permanently and safely store the carbon dioxide as part of our efforts to produce clean hydrogen.”

Air Products will collect materials like core and fluid samples, and other data from the well to supplement the data gathered as part of seismic testing, which was safely completed at the beginning of July. The data collected will form the basis of the company’s planned permit application for a Class VI Carbon Sequestration well on Lake Maurepas.

Equipment drilling the permitted Class V test well has begun traveling to Lake Maurepas and will include barges, boats and a rig. The drilling rig also includes temporary crew quarters for around-the-clock staffing and monitoring during construction.

Supervisors and managers will always be present and on duty, bring collective decades of experience, and are extensively trained on both safety and environmental stewardship to support the safety and wellbeing of the lake and those who use it.

Air Products is committed to ensuring the structures on Lake Maurepas are as unobstructive to daily use of the lake as possible, and still easily seen by boaters for safety purposes. Boater safety updates are being posted online and will be publicized via QR codes that will be posted around the Lake.

For more information about Air Products’ Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, please visit CleanEnergyLouisiana.com. People can also follow the project on Facebook, X and LinkedIn.