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Latest Headlines
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Apr 1, 2009 11:03:00 AM MST
Greenhouse gases stay buried for millions of years, say scientists (Carbon-Capture-Report)
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OTTAWA _ Buried deep within subterranean caverns may be the strongest case yet for an emerging technology that pumps greenhouse gases underground.
New research suggests carbon dioxide has been naturally stored below ground for millions of years without seeping into the atmosphere.
The finding by scientists from Canada and the United Kingdom gives further credence to carbon capture and storage _ a fledgling technology that harnesses emissions and pumps them deep into the soil.
Skeptics of carbon sequestration worry about its long-term effect on the soil and the potential for greenhouse gases to leak back into the air.
A paper published in the April 2 issue of the journal Nature may help assuage those fears.
Scientists studied nine gas fields in North America, China and Europe that naturally filled with carbon dioxide tens of thousands or millions of years ago. They measured the ratios of the stable isotopes of carbon dioxide and noble gases such as helium and neon in those gas fields.
They found the gases have stayed in underground pools of water for eons.
The research is being hailed as the first study to actually show how carbon dioxide is stored in natural-gas fields. Previous studies relied on computer simulations rather than empirical evidence.
"The fact is the technology is very much in the development stage. We have many unanswered questions," said Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a University of Toronto geology professor who co-authored the study.
"If we ... are going to take advantage of this idea of carbon capture and storage, we need to understand it. If you can´t understand how it works, you´re not going to be able to do it safely and economically.
"This is a major step forward, I think, in terms of trying to actually address one of the prime questions of carbon capture and storage, which is: what is going to be the fate of CO2 if we reintroduce it to the subsurface?"
The work was partly financed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the federal funding agency for university-based research.
The Conservative government has long touted carbon sequestration as a means to address the pollution problem.
The Tories have provided $375 million to help develop the technology in recent years. The latest federal budget also promised a five-year, $1-billion green technology fund.
The federal government recently greenlighted eight new carbon-capture projects in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Ottawa will spend between $3 million and $30 million on each project, up to a total of $140 million.
In February, U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to work together on technologies such as carbon sequestration to stem emissions from the coal and oil industries.
Saskatchewan is already home to one joint Canada-U.S. carbon-capture project.
EnCana Corp (TSX:ECA) runs the world´s largest carbon-capture project at its aging oilfield near Weyburn, Sask. The company buys the odourless and colourless gas from a coal gasification plant in North Dakota and pipes it into an underground reservoir to draw more oil out of the ground.
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