Carbon Trapping

Last week I attended a lecture on trapping CO2 emissions before it is expelled into the atmosphere. Called CARBON SEQUESTRATION, the idea is basically to include a processing facility on the tail pipe of coal fired power plants and pump the CO2 into deep geological formations. Deep like 8 kilometers.

The lecture was at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and titled: Geologic Storage as a Carbon Mitigation Option. by Michael Celia

I tried to keep some notes: Currently CO2 in the atmosphere is about 385 parts per million (ppm) As measured by ice core data. That concentration is higher than any time in the past 500,000 years. CO2 is projected to double in 50 years. 50 years!

If CO2 were to level off today...in 2060 global temps are projected to rise by 3 deg. C. As reference, when we talk about the Greenland ice sheet melting only 1-2 deg. C is usually the number thrown around as sufficient; add in the projected increases and CO2 really takes control.

So the lecture was about how to 'trap' CO2 under ground. There are a few methods and places to put it: Old oil and gas reservoirs, coal beds and deep saline water formation. The DOE web site describes these.

Dr. Celia is a computer modeler and apparently a very good one. There are so many aspects to this issue I would get a honorary PhD if i blogged it all. But anyway it seems that Dr. Celia really has looked at all the issues in making this viable; from how the concrete will act in the deep wells to the number of wells making holes in the ground, leakage, storage volumes and everything else imaginable.

But without getting into the nasty and boring details I figure it is the thoughts I walked out of the lecture with that blog readers would really like to know. After all just Google 'carbon sequester' and you will be bombarded with information.

Carbon Capture and Storage SlingShot Thoughts:

• We have to try. This echos' my thoughts on geoengineering in general (1,2,3,4).
• We have less than 50 years to turn this Carbon ship around. More like 1 year.
  
• It is VERY unlikely that the coal fired plants will be retrofitted with CS facilities within 50 years.
• The human effect on the atmosphere in undeniable.
• The Earth has great natural carbon sinks.
• Humans are overwhelming the system.
• Carbon sequestration can work but it is only a small part of the solution.
  
• Humans suck and there is nothing you can do about it.

TreeHugger also wrote up a piece on this issue. Some points were ok, others not so good. They mostly pulled quotes from a book. and those quotes are contrary to Dr Celias' studies. It is another perspective and that is always good. Plus the image I used is from their article and I didn't want to steal it outright ;)