BIG NEW CO2 STORAGE TRIAL

Theoretically, it will work. If only it could work, all those people who own all that coal could get so much richer.

Theoretically, it will be safe. And the local residents can always be evacuated if it isn’t. The technology has got to be tested.

OR -- we could make the wise and courageous decision to develop renewable technologies and stop thinking about leveling mountains for coal and filling all the sandstone in the world with acidic gases.

NewEnergyNews has covered many of these “clean coal” and “carbon capture” reports and there is, interestingly, one point never mentioned: The CCS process DOES NOT CAPTURE 100% of the climate change-inducing emissions. Some of the proposed technologies CAPTURE AS LITTLE AS 30%!

New technology would store carbon underground
James Kanter, August 6, 2007 (International Herald Tribune)

WHO
Frank Schilling, German professor of mineral and rock physics, National Research Center for Geosciences.

WHAT
CO2Sink: A test of geologic sequestration by Schilling. 100 tons/day of CO2 will be pumped 800 meters down into a sandstone formation. This is a type of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

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WHEN
- CO2Sink has begun and will be studied for 3 years.
- The EU is considering requiring all coal plants to use such technology after 2020.

WHERE
- Ketzin, Brandenburg, Germany, 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Berlin
- There are known satisfactory sites for geologic sequestration in China, Germany, Poland and the United States.

WHY
- Presently, Norwegian oil and gas producer Statoil buries CO2 extracted from natural gas in an offshore aquifer to avoid paying pollution taxes to the Norwegian government. Oil drillers pump CO2 back into failing wells near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, to enhance their oil recovery.
- Funding ($41.5 million): EU and German government. Also providing funding and technical support: Shell, Vattenfall, E.ON, Statoil and RWE
- Potential hazard: heavier than air CO2 escapes sequestration and settles on inhabited dips and valleys, gassing the surrounding population. It happened in 1986 in Lake Nyos, Cameroon. 1800 people were suffocated.
- The scientists say only 1% 0f 60,000 tons buried in the next 3 years will escape at Ketzin over 100 years, 5% over a thousand years, and there will be 24/7 monitoring at the bore hole.
- Ketzin residents remember a leak from an experiment with natural gas that required the evacuation of Knoblauch, a nearby village, in the mid-1960s.

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QUOTES
- Frank Schilling, professor of mineral and rock physics: "Everyone assumes we're going to store carbon dioxide inside of a cavern but the key is the tiny holes in this [sandstone] rock…We're going to press in the carbon dioxide and push out the salty water that's already there…I won't say it's not dangerous, but it's less dangerous than people think…[Ketzin could be] writing a piece of history."
- Jeff Chapman, CEO, Carbon Capture & Storage Association (London): "Putting CO2 offshore has the obvious advantage of public acceptability…But we know that there are centuries worth of space for storage onshore,"
- Sanjeev Kumar, emissions expert, World Wildlife Fund (WWF): "The growth of coal plants is absolutely scary…If we can make fossil fuels as green as we can, then we should try to get carbon capture and storage to work on a global level."
- Gabriela von Goerne, Greenpeace: "You've got to consider the load on future generations to take care of these storage sites…"
- David Reiner, lecturer, Judge Business School at Cambridge University: "Many people have an initial negative impression…although once they learn more we tend to see a more positive inclination."