Underground Carbon Dioxide Storage Process Faces Clogs, MIT Says

Basic chemistry is generating questions about the effectiveness of storing carbon dioxide underground.

The practice involves pumping the greenhouse gas into underground salt caverns, where its supposed to solidify. According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, much of the carbon dioxide will remain in its gaseous state, and may eventually escape into the atmosphere.

The U.S. Environmental Protection agency has estimated that carbon capture and storage technology may eliminate as much as 90 percent of the carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The findings suggest that the technique may be less effective than thought at curbing climate change.

If it turns into rock, its stable and will remain there permanently, Yossi Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. If it stays in its gaseous or liquid phase, it remains mobile and it can possibly return back to the atmosphere.

The basic idea is that the gas is injected into caverns about 7,000 feet (2.1 kilometers) underground where it reacts with salt water and turns into a solid. According to results published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, the gas may solidify only at the surface of the underground water pockets.

That can create a barrier that prevents more gas from reaching the brine. In effect, its clogging up the process. The research by Cohen and co-author Daniel Rothman, a professor of geophysics in MITs Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, was funded in part by the U.S. Energy Department.

The expectation was that most of the carbon dioxide would become solid mineral, Cohen said. Our work suggests significantly less will precipitate.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net Will Wade, Robin Saponar

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Underground Carbon Dioxide Storage Process Faces Clogs, MIT Says