A U.S. scientist says storing carbon dioxide underground is a feasible option for the oil industry, involving off-the-shelf technology. Steve Bryant, an associate professor of petroleum and geosystems engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, conducted a study that determined the technical requirements for storing carbon dioxide underground, as well as the parallels to current processes within the oil industry. “The oil industry has decades of experience moving large amounts of gas underground and above ground,” Bryant said. “In fact, capturing carbon dioxide from fixed sources, such as coal-fired and gas-fired power plants, and injecting it into geological formations mimics many of the processes already undertaken to produce fossil fuels.” Bryant said few other industries deal with fluid volumes of such size, he said. “This is not to dismiss the very real difficulty of finding and developing the financial and human resources for such an enterprise, nor of building the necessary infrastructure,” he said. The research appears in the September issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology.
United Press International
Scientist Urges Underground CO2 Storage
(Sept. 26)
