Carbon underground storage? We consider shows less room, new studies show
Many countries, including Canada, are relying on some types of underground carbon storage to keep the planet-winning greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and to avoid the most frightening climate projections.
But a study published this week In the journal Nature A new issue is being raised which is already a mostly unproven technology.
Studies led by researchers in the UK, Austria and the US analyzed a wide range of risk factors compared to the traditional assessment of carbon storage capacity.
They found that globally, about 1,460 billion tons of carbon dioxide can be safely stored. This is much lower than current estimates of about 12,000 billion tonnes. This means that using all safe areas for carbon storage will have only 0.7 C deduction in global warming, much less than the previous estimates of about 6 C..
“If we consider carbon storage as a rare resource, which should be based on our evaluation, then countries should be very clear about how they use it to fulfill their climate pledge” said the Matthew Guide said, the Center for Global Sustainable and Lead Right of the Center of the Study said the Associate Research Professor.
Interest in removing and storing carbon is increasing because climate modeling increases rapidly that our current emissions will not be sufficient to keep warming up to a safe level. In Canada, the federal government is offering a tax credit to support carbon capture and storage projects, Taxpayers estimated for cost Up to $ 5.7 billion by 2028. There are also large -scale programs to support technology in the US and Europe.
“As (study author) states, if we now work to reduce emissions, we probably have enough storage, but this really comes true, in fact,” Visconsin University Professor Rob Anex said – Madison who researches the carbon capture technique.
“The global emission rate is so high that the window of time in which geological storage is practical, in fact, is actually closing rapidly.”
What are the factors that keep carbon storage back?
The guide stated that most engineering studies focus on carbon storage focus at technical capacity-engineering or technically viable carbon can be collected and can be collected underground in sedimentary rock. His team took a different approach: taking into account the proximity of cities and cities, sensitive ecosystems and preserved wildlife areas, and seismic active areas.
He also admitted that carbon storage would not be beyond a depth of 2.5 kilometers, based on the evaluation of current technology, and some newborn storage technologies would be excluded. Some researchers say, given how quickly carbon storage technology is improving, it can be very limited.
Anna Littlefield, a researcher at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, said, “He has a very valid reason for choosing these depth on the previous literature and those studies. But I do not think it’s a difficult cut-off”
Kate Moran, Chairman and CEO of Ocean Network Canada, working on one ocean research observatory, one Project investigation carbon storage Under the sebed in Basalt Rock. She says that the CO2 reacts to the gas with the basalt to convert to a solid, making it a more attractive way to store carbon than a gaseous form that can be leaked.
“The capacity is very big,” said Moran. “The basin we are studying, the Cascadia Basin, we think at least 200 gigons are available at this one place from the west coast of Canada.”
Scientists in the BC have developed a carbon storage program that will take carbon dioxide from the air and push it deep into the sea, where it will be injected into the basalt, a type of volcanic rock, and eventually turning into rock.
Meanwhile, Annex says that the study’s carbon storage projections can be very good keeping in mind the financial challenges of building storage capacity to address the increasing global temperature.
He said, “It is almost unimaginably expensive to scale rapidly. And competition for capital competes with a lot of other social needs,” he said, the study said that a lot of carbon will be covered a large distance, will be sent to the land or in the pipelines, where it will be stored, will increase the cost and public protest.
The biggest issue still works
Nevertheless, the location available for storage may not be the biggest obstacle.
“There is a lot of geological place. And this study says, okay, not that much. You thought, alpwilems, but still so much, the period, “Dave Sawyer said, the head-tank Canadian Climate Institute’s leading economist.
The real challenge, experts say, showing that carbon captures and storage can actually work massively to offset emissions. Pilot projects in Canada and abroad have often seen mixed results.
Littlefield said that if the main problem with carbon storage was just that we were running out of storage capacity, it would be a good place for the industry.
“Because we are still trying to run and run successful projects,” he said.
Gidditn said that a message of study is about the so-called oversushoot theory-where climatic scientists believe that the world will look after the 1.5 C of warming, but later, through carbon storage technology, be able to bring back the temperature (the world is currently at about 1.3 c at about 1.3 c of warming above the pre-Industrial levels).
“(If) we know how much carbon we can store, there is a limit in this, then there is a possibility that we will not be able to return to 1.5 degrees,” he said.
