CO2-CAPTURE: COLLEGE COURSE, NOT CLIMATE SAVER

This week NewEnergyNews will be posting a series of articles about the still-theoretical nature of carbon-capture-and-sequestration (CCS).

Carbon dioxide gets full airing at MSU
Claire Johnson, August 9, 2007 (Billings Gazette)

WHO
students

WHAT
A 10-day program called Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration at Montana State University gives students the theory of, and hands-on experience with, CO2 capture and storage (CCS).

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WHEN
The program began in 2004. This is its 1st year in Montana.
ZERT test site installed in December 2006.

WHERE
- Montana State is in Bozmean, Montana. It is home to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership and the Zero Emissions Research and Technology Center (ZERT).
- Geologic formations suitable and not suitable for sequestration in Elk Basin and Shell Canyon oil fields (Cody, Wyo.) and Yellowstone National Park were studied.

WHY
- The program’s goal, this one for 20 students, is to give student and scientists state-of-the-art training and experience with the sciences, technologies, policies and economics of CCS.
- Topics: CO2 storage and monitoring, groundwater sampling, plant and soil health, retrofitting of coal-fired plants for CO2 capture, geologic sequestration
- ZERT focuses on geologic sequestration. There, students had the opportunity to do their own testing for leakage of sequestered CO2. Test site: A special 230-foot stainless steel pipe inserted via horizontal drilling 4 feet deep and monitored as 600 pounds of CO2 a day flows through. Onsite: 6 tons of CO2 gas in a trailer-sized tank and marked pipes, ready for experimentation.

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QUOTES
- Juan Nogues, Paraguayan native/Princeton University doctoral candidate:”[The program] broadened my perspective on how things work in natural systems…"
Brookie Gallagher, graduate geology student, Georgia State University: "I'm excited and enthusiastic about the program…I'm getting exposure, which is incredible."
- Lee Spangler, ZERT co-director/Big Sky director: "The field work really offers students the chance to get a feel for the type of research that is being done to ensure the safe storage of C02…"