State’s CO2 Storage Research Heats Up

January 6th, 2009 • Filed Under
feature photo

By Jared Miller, Star-Tribune

For more than a decade, scientists from Exxon Mobil Corp. have been injecting a dense carbon-dioxide mixture deep into the rock beneath southwest Wyoming The gooey liquefied gases, the unmarketable by-product of fossil fuel exploration, are injected back into the earth for permanent storage inside a dome-shaped geologic structure more than three miles deep.

University of Wyoming scientists are now trying to learn what happens to the gases after injection. The answers could yield vital clues about how to safely store large quantities of CO2 the greenhouse gas thought by many to be a major factor in global warming.

A team of scientists, led by UW School of Energy Resources professor Carol Frost, is partnering with Exxon Mobil and the U.S. Geological Survey to leverage the information into a pioneering effort to sequester CO2 in southwest Wyoming.

Those familiar with the project say it could help make Wyoming a major player in the emerging science of CO2 sequestration. It could also help make the state an attractive destination for underground storage of CO2 from America’s coal-fired power plants and other sources, they said.

“Our ultimate goal is to put large quantities of CO2 into the ground and design a monitoring system so that we can demonstrate to the public that it’s possible to design programs where CO2 is injected and monitored,” Frost said.

“The bottom line is everyone wants green power.”

READ THE COMPLETE STORY HERE.

Post a Response