CHARLTON TOWNSHIP, Mich., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- A research team that
includes partners from industry, academia and government has begun a test of
injecting high pressure carbon dioxide into a deep saline geologic formation
more that 3,000 feet underground, 11 miles east of the City of Gaylord.
The experiment, part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Midwest Regional
Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) Phase II Project, is designed to
provide better understanding of the potential for deep-underground storage
(called geologic sequestration) as a means to prevent carbon dioxide from
being emitted to the atmosphere, where it is believed to contribute to climate
change.
"This sequestration field test by our Midwest partnership region serves as
one of many ongoing nationwide tests to demonstrate the feasibility of
permanently storing greenhouse gases," said Jim Slutz, Acting Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy. "The success of each of these tests
moves the nation's carbon sequestration program another step closer to
determining the processes best suited to address the overall issue of global
warming."
MRCSP began injecting the carbon dioxide in early February and expects to
complete the injection of 10,000 tons by the end of March, 2008. The carbon
dioxide is being captured from a DTE Energy natural gas processing plant about
eight miles from injection site. The pressurized, high-density carbon dioxide
is transported to the injection well through an existing pipeline.
After injection is complete, scientists will conduct tests to determine
how the carbon dioxide responds to being contained within the targeted
geologic formations. The results of those tests are expected to be available
in later in 2008.
The MRCSP, one of seven DOE-sponsored regional partnerships, is led by
Battelle, a non-profit global leader in technology development and
commercialization.
The MRCSP includes a 30-plus member team of state and federal officials,
leading universities, state geological surveys, non-governmental
organizations, and private companies in the eight-state region of Indiana,
Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Partners involved in the Michigan Basin test, in addition to Battelle and
the site operator, Core Energy LLC, include DTE Energy, the Michigan
Geological Repository for Research and Education at Western Michigan
University, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ),
Office of Geological Survey.
David Ball, Battelle's project manager for MRCSP, said this carbon dioxide
sequestration field test draws on several advantages of this site, including
the infrastructure for supplying and transporting carbon dioxide due to DTE
Energy and Core Energy commercial operations there along with suitable
geologic formations for storage of carbon dioxide in the area.
"Although the test is very small in scale, it holds great promise as an
important step in building our knowledge and helping future generations to
address global warming," Ball said.
Geoscientists at the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and
Education at Western Michigan University have concluded from their research
carried out for MRCSP that formations throughout the state may contain enough
capacity to store hundreds of years' worth of current emission levels from
large point sources of carbon dioxide in the state.
Ball points out that the ability to inject carbon dioxide into deep
geological formations is only part of the solution. "For geologic
sequestration to be successful, we will need to develop reliable, efficient
and economical technologies to separate or, in other words, capture carbon
dioxide from large fossil fuel fired processes like those at power plants,
steel mills, cement plants and other industrial operations," he said.
"Research is progressing in that area, but economical capture technology is
not ready for commercial application today."
Ball added that addressing climate change will require multiple
technologies in addition to geologic sequestration. He said some of those
include increases in use of renewable energy, increased energy conservation
and energy conversion efficiency, and increases in carbon sequestration
through terrestrial methods, where carbon dioxide is removed from the
atmosphere by plants and converted to carbon in the soil and root matter.
SOURCE DTE Energy
John Austerberry of DTE Energy, +1-313-235-8859; or T.R. Massey,
+1-614-424-5544, or Katy Delaney, +1-410-306-8638, both of Battelle
