DOE goes cave hunting to pump carbon underground

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $126.6 million in grants on Tuesday to test carbon capture and storage in underground caverns.

Two sites in Ohio and California will try to verify that carbon dioxide gas can be pumped in geological formations and stored safely. The CO2 will be delivered from an ethanol plant in Ohio and a power plant in California.

Will you have carbon dioxide underfoot? A Berkeley Lab studies the locations of power plants, oil wells, and geological formations for storing carbon dioxide. Click on the image to go to the report.

(Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

The grants are subject to approval from Congress. When private money is included, the amount spent on the projects will be about $180 million over 10 years, the DOE said.

The Bush Administration and many other energy experts consider carbon capture and storage an important tool in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

The DOE has identified enough underground "sinks" to store 1,000 years of storage capacity. Pumping CO2 can also aid in extraction more from oil and gas wells.

However, there are a number of unanswered questions regarding the process.

The latest DOE tests, part of a regional carbon sequestration research program, will put 1 million tons underground, monitor how effective underground caverns are at storing the gases, and assess how cost effectively it can be done.

The California test will be in the San Joaquin Basin in Central California, where CO2 will be compressed and pumped 7,000 feet underground. The Ohio project will pump the gas 3,000 feet underneath the Mount Simon Sandstone.

At the same time, the DOE is sponsoring the FutureGen project to store carbon underground at coal-fired power plants. The project was recently restructured, pushing back its planned start date to 2015, in a move that drew criticism from many coal companies.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday where he announced FutureGen's technical requirements, DOE undersecretary Bud Albright said that the two tests in California and Ohio will be able to sequester 600 billion metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of 200 years of emissions from the U.S.

Environmental groups have also started to question carbon sequestration policies.

GreenPeace on Monday issued a report that called so-called clean coal "dubious technology" and inadequate.

"Carbon capture and storage is a scam. It is the ultimate coal industry pipe dream," said Emily Rochon, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace International and author of the report, in a statement.

For more details on the DOE's program see its carbon sequestration page.

[gdmaclew]

Why would you want to do that?
Human induced Global Warming is a hoax.

[stlwest]

There are gas to liquids processes that can use the high c02 concentrations to make fuel. There was a professor on Invention Nation who had a local brewery piping over cO2 from fermentation to his lab to do just this, why not use the same process with exhaust from the coal plants? If you are gonna pump something underground it might as well be pressurized air to allow renewable energy sources to create power when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing CAES.

[aka_tripleB]

This is a horrible idea. It is quite literally "sweeping the problem under the 'rug.'" The government should require companies to plant vegitation to cover their emmisions. That would actually be a solution to the problem, not just pushing the problem to someone else.

[zeroplane]

I can see it now, government pumps hundreds of millions of gallons of Liquid CO2 into the ground. Then flash forward 15 to 25 years and a rouge research group introduces self-aware nano bots into the mix. Suddenly the liquid CO2 is transformed into what might mistakenly be a natural alternative to yogurt; lets call the foreign substance "stuff". Next thing you know it is being sold throughout the country, then the world!..

Then slowly over months reports will come in with people exhibiting strange behavior.. It will be the warning signs of the end.

You have been warned! ;P

[TV James]

Or some terrorist group figures out how to make it explosive and blows up the country. What a bizarre idea. Next we'll learn the caverns are underneath Indian Reservations.

All those futuristic shows where city blocks are floating in space with chunks of dirt underneath - that's from when the CO2 explodes. Makes for a nice still life. What happens later when it comes plummeting back to earth.. not so funny.

[nextcube]

Greenpeace is skecptial of anything that doesn't involve sending the common man back to the stone age. That said, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Spend this money on something useful...or better yet, just don't spend it at all.

[WulfTheSaxon]

I'm just worried what will happen if/when there's an earthquake/bombing which causes a major outgassing like what happened at Lake Nyos back in 1986, suffocating hundreds of people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos

[nkycarbon]

"After reviewing dozens of constructive comments on our restructured
approach to FutureGen, we are pleased today to issue a draft
solicitation as we take steps to demonstrate the commercial
potential of cutting-edge carbon sequestration technology," Under
Secretary of Energy Bud Albright said. "Each of these plants will
sequester at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide
annually and will help meet our nation's rapidly growing demand for
energy using our most abundant energy resource in an environmentally
responsible way."

http://www.energy.gov/print/6233.htm DOE May 7, 2008

Not sure if Bud mispoke or was misquoted. To get to 600 billion
tons with the two tests sites will take 600,000 years. That said
even at a million a year each site represents over 1% of US annual
emissions. I'd like to see some details on that estimate before I
buy into it.