Carbon sequestration is quickly becoming a cornerstone of the Bush administration's approach to dealing with the issues surrounding global climate change and the influx of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
This is the backdrop to the article, "Carbon Underground," which appears in the February 2003 issue of Mechanical Engineering. And as the headline states, deep burial of CO2 in aquifers, oil wells and coal seams represents the best and most practical method for permanent carbon storage, among the several options currently under investigation.
According to the article in Mechanical Engineering, a saline aquifer developed and managed by the Norwegian petroleum firm Statoil in the North Sea "has the potential to store the carbon dioxide emissions from every European coal-fired power plant for the next 600 years.
"Taken together," the article continues, "geological formations have the potential to store every gram of projected CO2 emissions for the next 100 years."
Other methods of carbon sequestration discussed in the article include extraction of carbon from the atmosphere, carbon sinks using naturally growing plants and trees, pumping CO2 in oceans, and binding up carbon in solid form through a heating process. However, these remedies are either cost prohibitive or environmentally damaging to merit serious consideration at present.
For example, depositing large quantities of carbon dioxide in oceans might change the oceans' pH balance, rendering the waters too acidic for many types of sea life, says Mechanical Engineering.
Mechanical Engineering (http://www.memagazine.org)is the flagship publication of ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers). For further information about Mechanical Engineering or to view the article in full, visit www.asme.org and click on "ME Magazine."
ASME International(www.asme.org/about)is a 120,000-member organization focused on technical, educational and research issues. ASME conducts one of the world's largest technical publishing operations, holds numerous technical conferences worldwide, and offers hundreds of professional development courses each year. ASME sets internationally recognized industrial and manufacturing codes and standards that enhance public welfare and safety.
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