GEOLOGIC SEQUESTRATION: OPPORTUNITY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST?

Very important research. As long as everybody knows it is research, not a proven solution.

Field tests set on Basin basalt carbon storage
Andrew Sirocchi, September 15, 2007 (Tri-City Herald)

WHO
Grant Pfeifer, regional director, Washington Department of Ecology; Pete McGrail, scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL); Jim Kuntz, Executive Director, Walla Walla Port

The Columbia Basin (click to enlarge)

WHAT
- With projections and lab testing complete, the process of evaluating Washington state’s Columbia Basin as a site for geologic sequestration of CO2 emissions will now begin.
- A 3000 to 4000 foot injection well be drilled and 3,000 to 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be put into the basalt. 18 to 24 months later, basalt samples will be taken to check. If the basalt contains it, the CO2 will turn to limestone.

WHEN
The pilot project began in 2005. Field tests will begin in early 2008. PNNL and Dept of Ecology representatives are now making preparations. If seismic testing results are satisfactory, construction will begin in February 2008.

WHERE
- The Columbia Basin underlays 60,000 square miles of the Pacific Northwest.
- The port of Walla Walla spent $4 million for 1,900 acres off Highway 12 in the pilot project testing region, an investment that will be invaluable if the project proves successful.

WHY
- The Columbia basin is composed of basalt layers thousands of feet thick.
- Washington state now prohibits new power plants with emissions greater than gas-fired plants. If it proves possible to capture and sequester coal-fired plant emissions in the basin, it could open enormous new opportunities for power generation and other emissions intensive businesses in the region, an opportunity Walla Walla is poised to seize.
- The Wallula Energy Resource Center will build a $2 billion coal gasification plant
if the research project proves 65% of emissions can be captured and sequestered.
- Boise Cascade presently owns the test site and is clearing it in anticipation of the new use.
- Supercomputer projections and lab experiments say the basalt will hold the acidic CO2 but only field tests are conclusive.

There are competing methods to sequester caputered emissions, none yet proven. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Pfeifer, Dept. of Ecology: "It's exciting on the big picture scale and it's exciting on the regional scale as well because of the resource we walk upon…We're very comfortable with the plan that is being proposed."
- McGrail, PNNL: "Geologically, a considerable fraction of the Columbia Plateau is likely suitable…The scope is to verify the accuracy of those computer predictions so that this tool could get used for commercial scale deployment, in the Northwest or wherever we have an opportunity…"
- Kuntz, Walla Walla Port: "That's the objective of the pilot. To get an idea of the suitability…We think it's a great project and environmentally it has great promise for the future."