As the nation’s governors wrestled over the viability of clean-coal technology at their annual winter meeting this weekend, a carbon sequestration test project was underway in Michigan–attempting to provide scientific evidence to contribute to the debate.
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, Michigan.
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.
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.
In the meantime politicians from coal states and non-coal states press their cases.
"There’s no doubt there’s a tension and there’s no doubt there is very rapidly growing public opposition to coal," said Democratic Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, whose state relies heavily on coal for power although it is not a coal producer.
"Next-generation coal is going to need to continue to be part of our energy future for this country," said Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, chairman of the National Governors Association.
Presidents of two of the country’s biggest power companies were also on hand to urge governors not to dismiss coal.
"We cannot ignore coal, we cannot demonize coal," said Thomas Farrell, chairman of Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources Inc.
Democratic Governor John Baldacci of Maine, wasn’t so sure. He said he wanted to see clean coal technology move to the next generation before more coal power plants are built.
"You have to deal with the coal states, but I don’t think you want them doing more of what they’re doing…Not just say clean-coal technology, but really do clean-coal technology," he said.
Back in Michigan, that’s what they are trying to do.
David Ball, a project manager for MRCSP said, "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 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.
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