Trapping CO2

Production of CO2 is for now an unavoidable, byproduct of our society. There are many projects underway to reduce or eliminate CO2 emissions, but many of these technologies are in the development phase and may not be commercially available for years to come. Other groups are tackling the issue on another front: dealing with the emissions we currently produce. One interesting solution is to pump CO2 deep into the ground for long-term storage. This technique could help handle many large-scale point sources of CO2 such as power plants, but it is unclear how effective is it, and what sort of environmental impact it could have. A collection of groups headed up by Chris Ballentine at the University of Manchester has begun studying this method. By using noble gas and carbon isotope markers they studied 9 different sites, and determined that at most 18% of the CO2 precipitates as carbonate, the rest dissolves in water or remains as a gas. These processes alter the subsurface chemistry, and the study may seriously alter the regulations and methods used in burying CO2.

http://www.nature.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/nature/journal/v458/n7238/full/nature07852.html