|
| January 5, 2010 | | Scientists target American East Coast rocks for locking away CO2 | | Washington: In a new study, scientists have said that buried volcanic rocks along the heavily populated coasts of New York, New Jersey and New England, as well as further south,
might be ideal reservoirs to lock away carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by power plants and other industrial sources. The study, by scientists from Columbia University's
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, outlines formations on land as well as offshore
as the best potential sites to lock away CO2. Previous research by Lamont scientists
and others shows that carbon dioxide injected into basalt undergoes natural chemical
reactions that will eventually turn it into a solid mineral resembling limestone.
If the process were made to work on a large scale, this would help obviate the
danger of leaks. The study's authors, led by geophysicist David S. Goldberg, used
existing research to outline more possible basalt underwater, including four areas
of more than 1,000 square kilometers each, off northern New Jersey, Long Island
and Massachusetts. A smaller patch appears to lie more or less under the beach
of New Jersey's Sandy Hook, peninsula, opposite New York's harbor and not far
from the proposed plant in Linden. Goldberg said that the undersea formations
are potentially most useful, for several reasons. For one, they are deeper-an
important factor, since CO2 pressurized into a liquid would have to be placed
at least 2,500 feet below the surface for natural pressure to keep it from reverting
to a gas and potentially then making its way back to the surface. The basalts
on land are relatively shallow, but those at sea are covered not only by water,
but hundreds or thousands of feet of sediment, and appear to extend far below
the seabed. In addition to providing pressure, sediments on top would form impermeable
caps, according to Goldberg. The basalts are thought to contain porous, rubbly
layers with plenty of interstices where CO2 could fit, simply by displacing seawater.
The scientists estimate that just the small Sandy Hook basin may contain about
seven cubic kilometers of the rock, with enough pore space to hold close to a
billion tons of CO2. "The basalt itself is very reactive, and in the end, you
make limestone," said coauthor Dennis Kent, who is also at Rutgers University.
"It's the ultimate repository," he added. The study paper suggests a half-dozen
spots around New York including the Sandy Hook area, and three off South Carolina, to start with. |
Previous Files
|
|
